Viral images of moon landing filming are not real

Four images appearing to show men on a movie set filming the moon landing were generated by AI.

HOUSTON — Four images appearing to show men on a movie set, filming the moon landing are circulating various internet sites and social platforms. On X, the post has more than a thousand retweets. The same post also appears on Facebook with a disclaimer saying the images show false information, but users are still allowed to like, comment, and share. The KHOU 11 Verify Team finds out if the images are real.

THE QUESTION

Are the images showing the filming of the moon landing real?

THE SOURCES

Jordan Rhone, AI Image Creator
NASA
Google Lens
TrueMedia.org

THE ANSWER

This is false.

No, the images showing the filming of the moon landing are generated by AI.

WHAT WE FOUND

The KHOU 11 Verify Team tracked down the person who created the images of the AI images of the moon landing, Jordan Rhone. In a Zoom interview, Rhone told the KHOU 11 Verify Team he is fascinated to see the reactions to the images he created, saying "It's been something a lot of people have enjoyed and thought was creative and it has given a lot of people insight into how AI works."

The montage of images has been shared across multiple social media platforms since Rhone first created them in 2023. The pictures resurfaced on X when a user posted them on April 23, 2024. Since the April 2024 post, it has received over a thousand retweets and likes.

AI-created images are becoming more difficult to spot, but that doesn't mean you won't be able to find inconsistencies within the pictures. In the 'fake moon landing' images the alleged space capsule never looks the same in any of the photographs. If you start to look closer at the pictures, other issues begin to appear, below is an example.

Credit: Amanda Stevenson/VERIFY

The KHOU 11 Verify Team assembled a quiz to help test your AI detection skills.

Can you tell if this is a real photo or an AI-generated image? Good Luck!

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