A viral photo shared in early 2023 showed a real ice formation in the shape of a flower in China’s Songhua River.
In January 2023, a surprising collection of images was shared on Facebook with the caption: “Ice flowers discovered in China’s Songhua River.”
The Facebook post read:
#CTDiscovery Chinese people are fascinated by the photos of ice flowers on the Songhua River.
According to China’s People’s Daily, the formation of ice flowers depends on weather conditions. They usually form on shrubs. The best time for ice flowers to bloom is in the morning in late fall or early winter.
📍Songhua River, China
Netizens can’t stop cheering for this wonderful photo.
#iceflower #china #songhuariver #chinabeauty #scenic #scenery #picturesque #china🇨🇳 #beauty #amazing #explorecina #explorepage #exploremore #fyp
A reverse Google image search revealed that the same photo was also shared on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more. X (Formerly Twitter). These were also featured in various news articles. For example, it was featured in DNT India’s article titled “Viral Photos: Art of Nature! China’s River Ice Flower Images Are Truly Stunning, Check Out the Most Amazing Photos of 2023.”
The photo was first shared on Reddit in December 2022 with the caption “Ice flowers on the Songhua River in northeastern China,” according to TinEye search results.
Ice flowers on the Songhua River in northeastern China
byu/yourSAS interesting fuck
However, multiple social media users suggested that the image was created using artificial intelligence (AI). For example, a comment on Instagram said:
Unfortunately, we need to clearly state that these are generated by AI, as people who are not familiar with these technologies will think they are photographs and get confused.
In fact, tools designed to detect images created using artificial intelligence, such as AI or Not, Is It AI?, and Illuminarty, are tools designed to detect images created using artificial intelligence. It was shown that
(Screenshot from aiornot.com)
Additionally, we used Baidu, a Chinese search engine, to research the origins of the photos. I found an article in Chinese depicting “Ice Flowers” on the Songhua River in China. However, the footage did not resemble the image in question. For example, the People’s Daily Facebook profile shared a video in December 2022 that said, “‘Frost Flowers,’ flower-shaped ice crystals, cover the surface of the Songhua River in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province.”
The same video was also shared on the Facebook profile of Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
We also found an article published by Hong Kong Baptist University in January 2023 about the photo in question, titled “Viral image of frost flowers on the Songhua River was generated by AI.” There it was written:
Ms Lam Ching-chi, senior scientific officer at the Hong Kong Observatory, told HKBU Fact Check: When the water surface temperature drops below zero, ice forms on the water surface. The shape of the ice is completely different from the photo. ”
The viral image was also investigated by the Taiwan Fact-Checking Center, which highlighted the fact that the lighting in the image was unnatural, further proving that it was AI-generated (translated from Chinese).
Regarding photos of the Songhua River posted online, Lin Sihan analyzed that the way the light radiates in some photos is unnatural and the reflections on the water surface are illogical. “Some photos have obvious flaws, but it’s difficult to distinguish others without obvious flaws.
The aforementioned organization reported that other similar AI-generated videos purportedly depicting ice formations on the Songhua River in China are circulating on social media.
Overall, we rated this claim as Fake, considering that the image in question has signs of being generated by AI and was not shared by a reliable source.