A photo of a Cillian Murphy lookalike has been circulating social media and tricking millions of fans into believing an American baseball player was his doppelganger.
However, it turned out that the image of the sports celeb Tyler Glasnow, which was seen by more than 30 million people, was fake.
Irish comedian Seán Burke, part of the Irish sketch show No Worries If Not, retweeted the AI generated picture of the Tampa Bay Rays pitcher alongside the caption: "Absolutely stunned by the fact this is NOT Cillian Murphy."
It turned out Burke should have followed his instincts as the pic was created by an AI. The comedian tweeted about his mistake saying: "Turns out that Cillian Murphy lookalike photo was FAKE. Glad it was something inconsequential but hate that tech makes us need to overthink even the most pointless tweets now."
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Before the picture was outed as a fake, several people and institutions had been tricked, including some media organisations. The Twitter account for Specsavers Ireland chimed in, commenting: "Wiped our glasses five times and it's still Cillian Murphy."
However, some fans still believe there is a resemblance between the Oppenheimer actor and the baseball player.
This AI bamboozlement is only the latest in a number of fake or doctored images of celebrities. They do not appear be malicious but end up tricking many people and media outlets.
For example, fake photos of Pope Francis in a puffer jacket went viral in March and only last month, The Irish Times was the victim of a high profile prank. An article submitted to them as a comment piece was in fact written by an AI and the trickster had created a fake AI profile of the author to go with it.
The article, titled "Irish women's obsession with fake tan is problematic", was the second most read article on the Irish Times website before it was taken down. The paper's editor, Ruadhán Mac Cormaic, released a statement saying that the company had "fallen victim to a deliberate and coordinated deception".
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