A town deleted a social media post warning of a bear sighting after discovering that a picture it had received showing the fearsome creature was AI-generated.
“The town prioritised informing residents to avoid danger, but we apologise for causing any anxiety or confusion,” the northern town of Onagawa said on its official X account on Wednesday.
The image created with AI showed a bear roaming around a residential area at night.
“We will take this experience as a lesson, and will strive to improve the accuracy and speed of our future information dissemination,” the town said.
But residents still “need to continue exercising utmost caution regarding bear sightings”.
An official in Onagawa said on Thursday that the town had received the bear picture from a well-meaning company president on Wednesday morning.
“There had been reports of a bear sighting in a different district of the town over the weekend, that we warned of over disaster prevention radio, so we didn’t have much doubt” about the image, he said.
The town posted the image on X quickly on Wednesday morning because the alleged sighting was near a nursery school, the official said.
“One analysis showed the possibility was high that it was AI-generated, while the other said the possibility of AI was low,” he said. — AFP
