By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Published: 16:17 BST, 17 August 2026 | Updated: 22:48 BST, 17 August 2026
A woman discovered her boyfriend was cheating after an apparently innocent photograph he sent to prove he was taking a walk raised her suspicions.
The anonymous girlfriend grew concerned when he failed to return home, and she asked where he was.
He responded with a photograph of a park near her home and claimed he was simply out walking.
The image appeared to show a couple enjoying an idyllic picnic, with the woman feeding her companion as they sat together on a blanket.
She later suspected the picture had been taken from Google and altered by adding an AI-created couple, preventing her from finding the original through a reverse-image search.
AI expert Andrew Hulbert examined the photograph and identified several indications that the romantic picnic had been inserted into an otherwise genuine scene.
'The most suspicious photo is the picnic scene for three main reasons,' Hulbert told the Daily Mail.
Emily Hatton, founder of AI in Agencies, agreed, pointing to distorted hands, strangely shaped picnic items and areas where the woman's clothing appeared to melt into her surroundings.
A woman was sent an image of a nearby park from her boyfriend after asking where he was. She instantly became suspicious that he altered the image with AI
Sunil Manjunath, co-founder of Techoor, an online retailer offering technology and digital products, told the Daily Mail: 'The same tools that let someone create a fake vacation photo can just as easily fake an alibi, like a photo suggesting someone was somewhere they weren't.
'As these tools get more realistic and accessible, I believe we'll see this show up more in everyday relationships, not just public scandals.
'Asking for a photo as proof now invites something that can look completely authentic. So the real question is changing. It's no longer "can I see a photo?", it's "can I confirm where this photo actually came from?", and most people don't know how to do that yet.'
The first warning sign, according to Hulbert, was the noticeable difference between the apparent quality of the couple and the rest of the photograph.