Viral images of frost flowers on Songhua River are AI-generated

 

Screenshots of the Facebook posts.

 

News Brief

A video shared Dec. 30, 2022, on Facebook, claims to show flower-like ice crystals forming on the surface of the Songhua River, the largest tributary of Heilongjiang (or Heilong River) in northeast China. The caption, written in Chinese, translates as, “Dreamlike frost flowers start to grow on the Songhua River in northeast China as the cold weather continues, forming into a huge array of exquisite patterns.”

As of the publication of this report, the Facebook post had been shared 24 times, and had received 28 comments as well as 136 likes and reactions. Starting from mid-December 2022, videos containing similar content have been circulating on social media platforms, including TikTok and Weibo. The official accounts of Xinhuasannong, China Daily, China Meteorological Administration as well as the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia have also shared similar videos.

 

Similar videos have been circulating since mid-December 2022.

 

Meanwhile, photos of “frost flowers on the Songhua River” have been spread on Weibo and Facebook. For example, as of the time of publication, the following Weibo post had been shared 13,029 times, and had received 568 comments as well as 66,379 likes and reactions.

 

Screenshot of the Weibo post.

 

 

Fact-checking

Searches with the keywords “Songhua River” and “frost flowers” in Chinese have found a similar video which was posted Dec. 10, 2022, on TikTok. A comparison shows that the clip starting from the 29-second mark of the viral video is almost identical to the TikTok video. The TikTok user commented in the original post: “the video is created using a software program.”

 

Screenshot comparison between the viral video (left) and the TikTok video (right).

 

Further searches have found that the clip starting from the 14-second mark of the viral video corresponds to another video released on TikTok. In addition, the beginning of the viral video is almost identical to another TikTok video. TikTok users who posted the above videos said that the videos were computer-generated.

 

Screenshot comparison between the viral video (left) and another TikTok video (right).

 

From mid-December 2022, some TikTok users began to use computer software or programs with AI drawing functions to create similar videos of frost flowers and shared them with the caption, “The Songhua River is covered with frost flowers.” The following are some examples. The following TikTok user stated in the account description that all the videos are created by AI. On a Chinese graphic design website (sucaijishi.com), some users published articles introducing how to use the AI art generator Midjourney to make images of frost flowers floating on a lake. Some of the AI-generated images were then widely disseminated as real pictures of frost flowers on the Songhua River.

 

Examples of AI-generated videos of frost flowers on a lake shared on TikTok.

 

According to a news article published by New York Times, AI art programs, such as Midjourney and DALL-E 2, allow users to create complex, abstract or photorealistic works simply by typing a few words in a text box.

By inputting the following text descriptions with Midjourney, AI-generated images can be created automatically (as shown in the following screenshot). After making some adjustments, the images generated by Midjourney look very similar to the ones circulating online.

 

AI art generator tool Midjourney can generate images from text descriptions.

 

Comparison between the image generated by Midjourney (left) and the one circulating online (right).

 

In 2022, photos of frost flowers on the Songhua River taken by reporter Wu Hutu were released by the website of China Meteorological Administration (weather.com.cn) (see here and here). The frost flowers shown in these photos look completely different from those in the images circulating online.

 

Photos of frost flowers. (China Weather/Wu Hutu)

 

Ms. Lam Ching Chi, Senior Scientific Officer of the Hong Kong Observatory told HKBU Fact Check: “The winter phenomena shown in the pictures can’t be real according to physical laws.  When water surface temperatures drop to zero or below, ice will form on the water surface.  The form of ice is nothing like those in the pictures.”