The image on the right was generated by Zila Abka in February. She says she created it with Microsoft’s Image Creator. On the left is the viral image that Amirul Shah said he created also using an AI image generator tool.
From there, she basically forgot about it — until last week, when she saw a very similar image on Instagram, spreading rapidly followingBut the image was altered. Her watermarks were gone. And the image was expanded to include snow-capped mountains looming over the tents, an almost surrealist touch, an AI riff on Gaza’s Middle Eastern landscape.At first, she was offended that someone had laundered her image and removed her name from it.
Abka believes he took her image, edited it and created an Instagram “template,” which has since surged on social media, amassing nearly 50 million shares on Instagram and When he added it to an Instagram"template," it ricocheted around the world, as influencers and celebrities like Dua Lipa and Bella Hadid amplified it to their millions of followers.
“My intention was not for popularity,” Shah told NPR. “I wanted to uphold justice for all Palestinians who are there.”Generating the same exact AI image twice would be exceedingly unlikely.