AI images used to wrongly claim R. Kelly is on a prison concert tour | Fact check

Gabrielle Settles, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Images show R. Kelly has been performing on a prison concert tour

A May 1 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows several images of R&B star and convicted sex trafficker R. Kelly in a prison jumpsuit. The collage also includes photos of Kelly singing and a room full of inmates.

“They got R.Kelly on tour going to all da jails doing concerts (sic),” the caption reads.

The post was shared more than 7,000 times in nearly two weeks. Other versions of the claim circulated online.

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The images are fabricated. Experts who analyzed the photos found them likely to be AI-generated. A Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said it is against policy to allow inmates to travel between facilities.

Kelly is serving prison sentences for crimes including sex trafficking

Kelly has faced allegations of sex crimes since the 1990s. But a documentary series called “Surviving R. Kelly" spurred federal authorities to pursue charges, and he was indicted in New York and Chicago.

In June 2022, Kelly was sentenced in New York to 30 years in prison for nine counts of sex trafficking and racketeering. A few months later, he was convicted in Chicago on three counts of child pornography and three charges of child enticement. Kelly was sentenced there to 20 years in prison, but 19 years will be served concurrently with the 30-year sentence.

Scott Taylor, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, told USA TODAY that Kelly has been transferred between prison facilities in Chicago and Brooklyn. Benjamin O’Cone, another spokesperson for the agency, said Kelly is currently being held at a medium-security prison in Butner, North Carolina.

Although officials have moved him to different prisons, Taylor said it would be against policy for Kelly to travel between facilities in a manner like the Facebook post suggests – which would rule out a concert tour.

And, of course, there are no reputable reports of such a tour taking place.

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Experts told USA TODAY the images in the post are likely AI-generated. Jevin West, an associate professor and the co-founder of the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, analyzed the images using tools from TrueMedia.org. The analytics found that the images were 99% likely to have been created by programs like Stable Diffusion or MidJourney.

Walter Scheirer, a professor of engineering at the University of Notre Dame, told USA TODAY there were clues in the images that show they were likely AI-generated.

In one photo, Scheirer said, "There is a large and oddly shaped deformity on R. Kelly’s left hand." In another photo, "The image synthesis algorithm appears to be mixing up the uniforms of prisoners and corrections officers, as some of the prisoners are wearing badges and radios on top of their jumpsuits."

Said Scheirer: "These artifacts, coupled with the very obvious fact that no evidence exists that R. Kelly is on a prison concert tour, give me confidence that these images are not real."

USA TODAY reached out to users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fabricated images used to show R. Kelly on prison tour | Fact check