CLAIM: Greta Thunberg wearing a keffiyeh and holding a cocktail on a yacht.
VERDICT: The image was created using artificial intelligence, specifically with the Grok image generation tool developed by xAI.
Greta Thunberg and 11 other activists set sail on Sunday afternoon, June 1, 2025, heading for Gaza aboard a ship with the aim of “breaking Israel’s siege” of the devastated territory, according to the organizers. The sailing boat Madleen, operated by the activist group Freedom Flotilla Coalition, departed from the port of Catania in southern Italy and is expected to arrive at its destination on June 7.
Many social media users shared an image that appears to show the well-known activist Greta Thunberg wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh, standing on the deck of a sailboat and holding a cocktail.
Although some posts have cropped the image, in other versions the full picture is visible. On closer inspection, the right hand displays an asymmetry in the fingers and a lack of fingernails — features that are typical of images generated with artificial intelligence. Furthermore, in uncropped versions, the watermark of Grok is clearly visible.
Grok is a large language model developed by xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk. Designed to act as a “conversational assistant,” Grok is integrated into the X platform (formerly Twitter), offering users answers to a variety of questions. Since December 2024, Grok includes Aurora, an advanced text-to-image generation model also developed by xAI. Aurora can generate photorealistic images, artworks, logos, portraits, and even memes based on user-provided prompts.
Finally, we used the HIVE AI tool to examine the image. HIVE AI responded with complete certainty that the image was created using artificial intelligence software.
Conclusion
The image was created using artificial intelligence, specifically with the Grok image generation tool developed by xAI.