Princess Kate photo scandal: Is it AI? Why is the internet obsessed? - The Front Page

Princess of Wales: First official picture of Kate since surgery released. A new photograph of the royal family was taken in Windsor, earlier this week, by the Prince of Wales. Photo / Instagram

Kensington Palace has been criticised for its naivety in releasing a photoshopped picture of the Princess of Wales, amidst intense speculation about her health.

A photo of Kate Middleton with her three children was released on Sunday to mark Mother’s Day in the UK. It was the first photo of the Princess since she underwent planned abdominal surgery in January.

However, obvious edits on the photo were quickly spotted, and news agencies issued kill notices to pull the image. Kate later released an apology, saying she had been experimenting with editing.

The edited photo only furthered the online rumour mill that has been in overdrive in recent weeks, with Kate’s continued absence from the public eye and the refusal to release more details about her condition sparking conspiracy theories from social media users.

NZ Herald deputy lifestyle editor Emma Gleason told The Front Page, the Herald’s daily news podcast, that the palace has not handled this well.

“You expect more control from an operation like theirs. This wasn’t just releasing a family snap, this was a strategic release to show everyone she’s fine, the family’s okay, but to release a poorly edited picture at a time like this when it’s never going to be more closely looked at seems really kind of naive.”

Gleason said that while the Princess is entitled to privacy, and her health shouldn’t be fodder for speculation, it comes at a time when the Palace has been open about King Charles’ health as he is treated for cancer.

“The ability to contrast the two approaches is really apparent here. I think if they’d just front-footed this and been quite clear about what was going on it would have shut down all of this speculation really quickly because as we know oxygen it feeds us like a fire, and then you throw social media in and it’s like putting petrol on the whole thing.”

The scandal has also raised concerns about the proliferation of photo manipulation. AI expert Dr Paul Duignan told The Front Page that the technology is now at a stage where anyone can “fool around with it”, such as the Princess of Wales, but tools such as OpenAI’s Dall-E software, are making it easier to completely create images from scratch.

“We’re not quite there yet, but very soon we’ll be in a situation where pretty much anything can be fabricated in a way which, given the amount of time we have to pay attention to these things, it would be very hard for us to detect whether or not it is a fake.”

Duignan said that traditional media will play a key role in vetting photos that come across their desks, and working out what is true or not.

Listen to the full episode to hear more on this Royal photo scandal, and the wider ramifications of photo manipulation.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. This episode was presented by Georgina Campbell, a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.