Have you come across the images circulating online, supposedly depicting basketball legend LeBron James donning a pink outfit at the premiere of the latest Barbie film? Despite their widespread sharing on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter this week, it’s important to note that these photos are entirely fabricated and hold no truth.

The images, at times featuring additional accessories such as a pink purse, often come with captions like “LeBron James at the Barbie movie.” In one photo, James is even depicted wearing a pink skirt, albeit with a hue just different enough to be mistaken for beige.

It’s crucial to note that these pictures are fabricated and generated using AI tools like MidJourney or DALL-E. The specific AI tool responsible for creating the trending fake photos of James on social media remains unidentified at this time.

One of the doctored images has garnered over 260,000 views on Facebook, capturing the attention of fact-checking group Politifact. According to Politifact, some of the manipulated pictures of James display fingers that are noticeably out of proportion, appearing almost “alien-like.” This highlights an ongoing challenge with artificial intelligence (AI) in accurately simulating realistic-looking fingers in deceptive viral images.

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