this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
294 points (98.7% liked)
no context
2451 readers
5 users here now
A place for posting anything out of context. Please caption any posts PIC
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Honestly impressed the claws didn't accidentally pop it
It's AI, or else the alligator which weighs far more than a human is weightless and doesn't push down on the floatie anywhere, cause it to fold, sink in the water, etc.
If it's AI it has the best water reflections I've ever seen.
There's really no evidence to suggest it is AI though, when this exact thing has happened and been photographed multiple times in the past, pre-AI.
~~i don't think is AI, it's way too consistent.~~
Is fucking AI... And now i'll become paranoid of any photo taken after the 2024.
This is the original as far as I can tell based on a reverse image search. https://www.tumblr.com/aboutoriginality/812499451491024896
That page is basically all AI images. It may have happened for real before, but this picture is definitely AI gen.
Edit: and it has a positive synthID from Gemini.
Miami New Times - Alligator Spotted on Alligator Pool Float
This doesn't have the same picture, but it shows it is possible.
However having seen those pictures I'm almost more skeptical of this one. Why is the pool so dirty? Most pictures of alligators are gonna be in dirty water, so I could see an AI doing that. The alligator also looks suspiciously clean and kind of "cutesy" to me. The chairs also seem a little weird, and what's the weird blue thing on the ground?
It could be that someone took a real story but decided to "clean it up" with AI.
The water quality could be explained if this is during or after a big storm, perhaps specifically a hurricane or Tropical Storm, since it is likely Florida.
I don't see anything weird with the chairs except that one is not part of the set. The thin legs are from the table.
Possible.
There's all sorts of things wrong with them.
:::spoiler Way too closely examinating the picture
Exhibit A: The table is supported in the center. If those are table legs, then why are they only on one side? Looks very much like they're supposed to be chair legs but an AI got confused.
Exhibit B: The chair on the far side appears to go through the table.
Exhibit C: The side of the side of the box looks weirdly curved, like it's supposed to also look like a chair leg. But we can see these chairs don't have back legs from the other. This continues into a weird artifact that connects to the back of the chair, which doesn't make any sense at all. It's not part of the armrest.
Exhibit D: Also, look at this fence. See how it bends inward like that? Fences don't look like that.
Also, how did the gator get past a fence like that? If the storm had knocked it over, it seems likely that someone taking the picture would include the damage. Could it be a partial fence? Sure. But it's just another question mark, another assumption required to make the picture make sense.
Exhibit E: Do drainpipes normally drain right where people sit, where the water will go straight into the pool? Not impossible, and I guess it explains why the water would dirty, but like another thing that makes me go hmm.
Exhibit F: Funny enough, the "fingers" are wrong. Alligators have three claws in the back (as in the Shutterstock photo, and according to Google) this one only has two, and they're clean white which is strange.
But probably the biggest thing to me is just that googling, all I saw was this being on Facebook and other social media, no news reports. "Dangerous wildlife acting cute" is a popular genre of AI posts.
We know it was reported on when this happened in 2019, before AI image generation kicked off. It's just too many little things for me to believe it.
It could be AI, and i thought that too, but i haven't seen any obvious indicators. The tail and nose are also slightly elevated on the inflatable, and a gator may be able to spread its weight more evenly. Keep in mind a gator can also be be buoyant on its own.