The truth about the fake “snake cat” that deceived the Internet

For the past couple of weeks, a picture of a cat with reptilian black and yellow spots on its body has been circulating on social networks.

The accompanying text states that it is a “cat-snake”, “the rarest feline on Earth”, living in “hard-to-reach areas of the Amazon rainforest”.

good posts facebook, Twitter And tik tak have thousands of reposts, and users argue in the comments whether this is true or a hoax.

Well, it turns out it’s very fake, as confirmed by the creator of the original post, a Russian Facebook user named Alexei Vasiliev.

“As far as I understand, an artificial intelligence system was used to create it, which one I don’t know, because I couldn’t find the author of the drawing,” he told MailOnline.

For the past couple of weeks, an image of a cat with reptilian black and yellow spots on its body (pictured) has been circulating on social networks.

For the past couple of weeks, an image of a cat with reptilian black and yellow spots on its body (pictured) has been circulating on social networks.

Well, it turns out that this is very fake, as confirmed by the creator of the original post, a Russian Facebook user named Alexei Vasiliev (pictured)

Well, it turns out that this is very fake, as confirmed by the creator of the original post, a Russian Facebook user named Alexei Vasiliev (pictured)

“Apparently, an ordinary cat and an image of a mangrove snake were used to create the Amazonian cat.”

HOW DO ART TOOLS WORK?

Artificial intelligence tools such as DALL-E are based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) that mimic the way the brain works for learning.

An ANN can be trained to recognize patterns in information such as speech, textual data, or visual images.

These algorithms are fed millions of photographs to “learn” what different objects should look like and eventually put them together.

Upon receiving a request to create an image, they will note a number of key features that may be present and generate pixels to render their interpretation.

The mangrove snake, also known as the “golden-ringed cat snake”, is native to Southeast Asia.

It is mostly black, but has transverse yellow stripes along the length of its body, giving it the same color as the cat in Mr. Vasiliev’s image.

It is the largest of the cat snake species, so named because of their vertical pupils, which resemble cat eyes.

Further confirmation that the animal in the viral image was not real came from Dr. Andrew Kitchener, Chief Curator of the Department of Vertebrates at the National Museums of Scotland and an expert on wild cats.

“The snake cat does not exist and has not been scientifically described,” he told MailOnline.

“The “photo” probably shows a South American cat from the genus Leopardus (possibly a margay, leopard vidi), who was given a change of clothes.

“Of course, there may be new cat species waiting to be discovered in South America, but this is not one of them.”

Mr. Vasiliev discovered the image of the so-called snake cat while removing photos from his phone and uploaded it to Facebook on March 8 with the caption: “Serpens catus (snake cat) is the rarest feline species on Earth.” .

“These animals live in remote areas of the Amazon rainforest, and therefore they are relatively little studied.

Mr. Vasiliev discovered the image of the so-called snake cat while removing photos from his phone and uploaded it to Facebook on March 8.  It received 722 reposts.

Mr. Vasiliev discovered the image of the so-called snake cat while removing photos from his phone and uploaded it to Facebook on March 8. It received 722 reposts.

The first images depicting a cat-snake appeared only in 2020. The mammal weighs up to 4 kilograms and reaches 50 centimeters in length.

“The animal is practically untamed, although some Amazonian tribes use snake cats to protect their homes from rodents.”

He then cited a Telegram channel called “Unknown Planet” as the source.

His post received 722 shares and 313 comments with mixed opinions about its veracity.

One commenter wrote, “This is the first time I’ve seen this cat breed.” Fabulous!!!!’

Another added: “There is no biological connection to this. The snake and the cat. Just stop… Stupid bait.

Posts on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok are gaining thousands of reposts, and users argue in the comments whether this is true or fiction.  Photo: Facebook post.

Posts on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok are gaining thousands of reposts, and users argue in the comments whether this is true or fiction.  Pictured: Twitter post

Posts on Facebook, Twitter and TikTok are gaining thousands of reposts, and users argue in the comments whether this is true or fiction.

On March 14, Mr. Vasiliev published an additional post explaining how the cat-snake came to be.

Translated from Russian, it read: “Six days ago, while “cleaning” my phone, I came across a saved photo of a cat of a strange color.

“I think it’s cool, the spitting image of a “snake cat”. Let me see, what would that be in Latin? Google translated it as “Serpens Cattus”.

“When I tried to write a plausible text, supposedly about a rare breed of cats, I got some kind of nonsense, very intense and not real. It feels like I’m not Drozdov.”

Nikolai Drozdov is a Russian biologist who worked on the popular science television program In the Animal World.

Mr. Vasiliev believes that the author of the photo used the image of a mangrove snake (pictured) to get a cat coloration.  This species is also known as the

Mr. Vasiliev believes that the author of the photo used the image of a mangrove snake (pictured) to get a cat coloration. This species is also known as the “golden-ringed cat snake”.

Dr. Andrew Kitchener, a wild cat expert, believes the cat in the viral image could be a margay (pictured).  They are listed as

Dr. Andrew Kitchener, a wild cat expert, believes the cat in the viral image could be a margay (pictured). They are listed as “endangered” and originate from Central and South America.

He continued, “Then I took a description of a random breed from some specialized site, changed the name to Serpens Cattus, added Amazon rainforest nonsense, added a link to a non-existent Telegram channel for credibility, and allowed the Snake Cat Walk on Facebook.”

Mr. Vasiliev confirmed in YouTube video that he downloaded the original image from Facebook and does not know if it was created using Photoshop or artificial intelligence.

In his post, he asks the original artist to contact him because they are “family”.

The Amur leopard is probably the world’s rarest feline, with fewer than 100 individuals thought to be left in the wild, according to WWF.

Mr. Vasiliev attributed the cat-snake’s viral success to the fact that it was a bright, attractive photo, it featured a cat that for many is a ‘family member’, and the ‘scientific’ text inspired a ‘degree of trust’.

The Amur leopard (pictured) is probably the world's rarest feline, with fewer than 100 individuals thought to be left in the wild, according to WWF.

The Amur leopard (pictured) is probably the world’s rarest feline, with fewer than 100 individuals thought to be left in the wild, according to WWF.

Mr. Vasiliev concluded that while his fake post was relatively harmless, it showed how easy disinformation can be spread using AI image generators.  Pictured: Fake Facebook cover of Mr. Vasiliev's prestigious scientific journal Nature.

Mr. Vasiliev concluded that while his fake post was relatively harmless, it showed how easy disinformation can be spread using AI image generators. Pictured: Fake Facebook cover of Mr. Vasiliev’s prestigious scientific journal Nature.

Text messages have been copied and shared widely on the Internet since the inception of the Internet, and this is what is known as “copy-paste”.

However, since the recent boom in artificial intelligence technologiessome experts are concerned which can become harder to know when the information, images and videos are real.

Mr. Vasiliev concluded that while his fake post was relatively harmless, it showed how easy disinformation can be spread using AI image generators.

“If you add more or less believable text to the photo, it will be a hit,” he wrote in his explanatory post on Facebook.

The sad conclusion from this story is that future generative models, not without human initiative, of course, will flood the Internet with a stream of harmless, not very, and not at all harmless news.

“Whether people will be able to filter them and distinguish lies from truth is, to put it mildly, a big question.”

Mr. Vasiliev told MailOnline that his experiment shows “the importance of critical thinking” and a “rational approach” to online information.

“Otherwise, we will lose the battle with artificial intelligence, as the era of fakes and hoaxes is just beginning,” he told MailOnline.

“The Amazon cat is just a warning and an example.”

Instagram photographer admits that all his portraits are created by artificial intelligence

An Instagram A photographer who has racked up thousands of followers for his stunning portraits has admitted they are actually fake.

The apparent “photos” were created by Midjourney, a program that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create images – and tweaked in Photoshop.

Jos Avery from the USA even gave each figure a name, a geotag, and a touching story that he added in the captions to the images, but they are labeled as fictitious.

Thanks to photorealistic black and white images, his Instagram account @averyseasonart has amassed nearly 29,000 followers since it was first posted in October.

However, after he admitted that the images were generated by artificial intelligence, he received some backlash from followers who felt cheated.

Read more here

An Instagram photographer who has amassed thousands of followers thanks to his stunning portraits has admitted they are actually fake.

An Instagram photographer who has amassed thousands of followers thanks to his stunning portraits has admitted they are actually fake.