WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Photos depict historical events in Australia.
OUR VERDICT
False. The images have been generated using artificial intelligence
AAP FACTCHECK - Images of some of Australia's most iconic historical figures and events, from Gallipoli to the Emu War and Phar Lap, are being altered using artificial intelligence (AI), distorting the country's past.
The images include one that claims to show an Anzac soldier carrying an injured Turkish soldier to safety during the 1915 Gallipoli campaign.
The image has certain artefacts that are hallmarks of AI-generated images. For example, the injured soldier has no left hand, while the soldier carrying him appears to be lifting him via a bulge near his crotch.
A different version of the image has also been posted online which shows the Turkish soldier with a strangely contorted body and the Anzac soldier lifting him in an improbable posture while holding him via a bulge near his buttocks.
Peter Stanley, a historian at the University of New South Wales and author of several books about Gallipoli and Australia's role in World War I, told AAP FactCheck the image had been fabricated.
He said the uniforms in the image are incorrect, and the helmet was not introduced until after the Gallipoli campaign.
"This photo is a pathetic, contemptible forgery," Professor Stanley said.
Another image claims to show pioneering English pilot Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia in 1930.
Midge Gillies, author of an Amy Johnson biography, told AAP FactCheck the person in the image "is definitely not Amy Johnson".
"It doesn't look like her in any way," Dr Gillies said. "If the person posting this is suggesting it's the plane Amy flew to Australia that's wrong too as the number isn't accurate and you'd be able to see Jason, the name, on the side."
The aircraft in the post is also out of proportion, appearing far smaller than the biplanes she flew at the time.
A similar legitimate photo of Ms Johnson with the Gypsy Moth biplane she flew to Australia shows a much larger aircraft.
Ms Johnson's shadow in the social media image also doesn't connect to the plane's shadow, despite it showing Ms Johnson's hand resting near the propeller of the plane.
Another manipulated image shows a boy appearing astride Australia's most famous racehorse, the New Zealand-born Phar Lap.
The image appears to have been inspired by a genuine photo depicting Gerald Telford, the son of Phar Lap's trainer Harry Telford, sitting atop Phar Lap in 1931.
However, the manipulated version has a tell-tale modern addition - the boy is wearing Velcro shoes, along with other changes.
The inventor of Velcro, George De Mestral, came up with the idea in the 1940s, though it wasn't commercially produced until the late 1950s, according to a history of Velcro Companies which he founded.
That's more than two decades after Phar Lap died.
A similarly suspect post shows a different boy mounting Phar Lap, this time however he's wearing what appears to be Nike shorts and socks along with velcro-strapped shoes.
Nike was founded in 1971, when track and field athlete Phil Knight and coach Bill Bowerman changed the name of their shoe company, Blue Ribbon, adopting the name of the Greek goddess of victory, according to Britannica.
The brand's swoosh logo was introduced that year, almost 40 years after Phar Lap's death.
Another suspect image being shared online claims to show an ill-fated experiment with a triple-decker train in Australia.
The image was posted to coincide with April Fool's day and contains a caption saying the experimental train's first journey was on April 1, 1952. However, it has been posted by other accounts at later dates, out of context.
The post claims the locomotive was eventually abandoned after six months due to issues, including difficulty navigating tunnels and "unnerving swaying at high speeds".
Gabrielle Sexton, curator and business manager at the National Railway Museum in Port Adelaide, told AAP FactCheck she believed the image was an April Fool's joke.
"It was not a real train," she said.
Craig Mackey, archives manager for the Australian Railway Historical Society, told AAP FactCheck the height of the locomotive chimney in the image was also "ridiculous".
Well-known images of maintenance workers on Sydney's Harbour Bridge have also been altered.
One shows a man working on a scaffold on the bridge, however part of the scaffolding's planks merge into each other and appear unsupported. A bucket at the man's feet also appears perched improbably on the side of a narrow plank.
Part of the scaffolding also appears to pass through the worker's chest.
A second image shows a man painting the bridge, but has been altered from a real image taken in 1945 depicting a different maintenance worker.
The manipulated image has unusual details, including a paint brush that looks entirely solid, while it has been changed to make the exposed girder look even narrower.
Details of the Sydney cityscape in the background have also been altered.
Depictions of Australia's 1930s military operation to reduce the emu population in Western Australia, dubbed the Emu War, have also become popular for AI fakes.
The two-month campaign involved three members of the Royal Australian Artillery who used machine guns to cull emus that were eating crops on farmland, according to Britannica.
The operation was deemed a failure and widely mocked after the emus proved particularly wiley, with less than 1000 reported exterminated.
AI-generated images purporting to show the campaign depict several soldiers in close-quarter combat with the large flightless birds, exhibiting inconsistencies such as soldiers with distorted faces and improbably large birds.
Another manipulated image appears to show the more feathery African ostrich rather than Australia's native emu.
AAP FactCheck has previously debunked a number of historical photos that have been manipulated or created using AI, including images of the holocaust and 9/11.
This has led experts to raise concerns about how the technology may misrepresent history and lead to lasting false impressions about the past.
Prof Stanley said he feared such technology would be used to spread and support unjustifiable interpretations of history.
"The bogus Gallipoli image is a laughable forgery, but we are told that AI will 'improve' - that is, it will become more insidiously convincing," he said.
"Historical understanding depends on the validity of the evidence. When that evidence becomes corrupted, falsehoods can flourish. This is a very serious matter for all who care about truthful history.
"How soon before more skilfully manipulated 'previously unseen' images appear supposedly supporting contentious aspects of Australian history?
"Will we see 'newly discovered' photos of Ned Kelly, of the massacres at Banka Island or Coniston, or of Japanese soldiers supposedly invading Queensland in 1942?"
Toby Walsh, a professor in AI at the University of New South Wales, previously issued similar warnings to AAP FactCheck.
"We're used to believing what we see. We're now in a world where that is no longer the case," Prof Walsh said.
"I fear that truth itself is under threat."
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