Fact check: Image of crowds around Bangkok sinkhole is AI-generated

Shortly after a portion of a busy road near a Bangkok hospital caved in, an image purportedly showing people crowding around the sinkhole was falsely shared on social media.

The image contains visual errors indicative of AI-generated content, and was flagged on Google as having been made with its AI tools.

“Road subsided in front of Vajira Hospital at 7:24 am,” reads the Thai-language caption of an X image shared on September 24, 2025.

The image appears to show a crowd of people standing close to the edge of a deep sinkhole near a high-rise building.

It surfaced after a portion of the busy Samsen Road outside the Vajira Hospital in Thailand’s capital city caved in, leaving a roughly 50-metre (160-foot) hole that pulled down power lines and exposed a burst pipe gushing water (archived link).

Suriyachai Rawiwan, director of Bangkok’s disaster prevention department, told AFP at the scene that the collapse was likely linked to heavy rain and a leaky pipe that eroded earth under the road.

Although authorities reported no injuries or fatalities, the incident prompted a precautionary evacuation and a site survey from Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who ordered an investigation (archived link).

Screenshot of the false X post captured on September 25, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

The same image was also shared in similar Threads and X posts.

“Why are you all standing there, content creators? It’s dangerous!” read a comment on one of the posts.

Another said: “Why didn’t the police cordon the area off? That’s dangerous.”

The image, however, is not a genuine photograph of the Samsen Road cave-in.

While a reverse image search led to similar photos of the sinkhole, the falsely shared image was flagged on Google as being “Made with Google AI”.

A Google spokesperson previously told AFP that when a SynthID watermark is detected, it means “the image has been generated or modified with AI” (archived link).

Screenshot from Google Images, with the AI label highlighted by AFP

An analysis of the image also found visual errors indicative of AI-generated content, including missing details from video of the cave-in published by Thai newspaper Thairath and a figure who appears to be hovering over the edge of the sinkhole (archived link).

A reverse angle of the sinkhole visible in an AFP video also shows the sinkhole extended to the foundations of another building, leaving no room for any crowds to gather near its edge (archived link).