Some Think The Picture Of Elon Musk Looking Like A Harkonnen Is Real, But It's A Work Of AI

The first shirtless image of Elon Musk since 2022 has hit the web, and the billionaire entrepreneur is looking more portly in it than ever before.

The image, which has already been spread around and memed across social media, is completely fake, so hold on to your jokes about Musk transforming into a new Harkonnen cousin … for now.

The viral image was likely first posted on April 24th, 2024, by X / Twitter humor account Liam Nissan (@theliamnissan) — at least, no earlier posts of it could be discovered.

In the viral image, Elon Musk is standing at a beach wrapped in a wet black towel, his stomach and sides hanging over it.

The image received over 3,700 reposts and 21,000 likes in two days on Liam Nissan's account alone without taking into account multiple reposts made in the following hours.

Upon closer inspection, the image has been AI-generated: Musk's weird-looking right hand, a bizarre choker on his neck and an unnatural gloss of his towel completely give it away.

Real photographs of Musk made in 2022 in Mykonos in which he looks pale and overweight and is wearing black swimming trunks were likely used in the prompt for this new image.

While the image itself is AI, humans pitched in with some memes dunking on Musk's look in it as it proceeded to go viral in recent days.

Lots of people caught Baron Harkonnen vibes from the picture, given the pale skin and the round stomach. My desert… my planet… my Mars…

As a word of caution, stay critical of what you see online — powerful generative AIs have been making spreading misinformation easier than ever.