By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
The Presidency has debunked reports claiming that a photograph of President Bola Tinubu and Rwandan President Paul Kagame taken in Paris, France, was generated using artificial intelligence.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, described the reports and subsequent social media commentary as a “misrepresentation of facts.”
Ajayi insisted that the photograph was genuine, explaining that both leaders met and shared meals on Sunday during their engagements in Paris.
He said, “The narrative that the picture of Presidents Bola Tinubu and Paul Kagame taken in Paris yesterday was AI-generated is not correct.”
He added, “Both President Kagame and President Tinubu met in Paris and had lunch together on Sunday. The two leaders later had dinner with President Macron the same evening.”
According to him, the controversy stemmed from the poor quality of the original phone photograph, which was later enhanced using the Grok tool.
“The picture was taken with a phone and obviously had poor quality. The photographer only later used Grok to improve the picture quality. That is not a reason to conclude it was AI-generated,” Ajayi said.
He criticised reports suggesting otherwise, saying journalists should have verified the information before publication.
“The writer or editor should have asked questions before this wrong conclusion,” he added.