"Too Scared to Send My Child to School"... The Truth Behind What Caused Fear in China Revealed

Controversy Spreads on Social Media Over Brown Bear Photos and Posts
Police Investigation Reveals Images Were AI-Generated

A post and photos claiming that a brown bear appeared in a city area of Sichuan Province, China, have spread across social networking sites (SNS), sparking controversy.

According to the Chinese newspaper Guangming Daily on September 28, photos recently surfaced on SNS, quickly going viral, showing two brown bears roaming the downtown streets. The photos depict two giant brown bears standing in the middle of a road, along with warnings such as "Be careful," and "CCTV caught it, so do not go near the area."

A photo of a brown bear that caused controversy spreading on Chinese SNS. Weibo, China.

A local resident who saw the photos commented, "I saw a post on SNS saying that brown bears came close to my house and I was terrified," adding, "I was so anxious that I couldn't even send my child to school."

As public anxiety grew, the local public security authorities' cyber investigation team launched an inquiry. Upon review, they found that the photos being circulated were images generated by artificial intelligence (AI). Through tracking the case, the police identified the creator and main distributor of the photos.

Police believe that, since wild brown bears recently made headlines after actually appearing by a highway in the Inner Mongolia forest area, someone created and distributed AI-generated photos to attract attention by capitalizing on that incident.

China CCTV is reporting on AI-generated images of bears. Screenshot from CCTV.

Officer Yang Yunlu, who was in charge of the investigation, stated, "The creator simply made fake images with AI for fun, while the distributor shared them without verifying their authenticity," adding, "Due to the viral nature of SNS, the images spread rapidly and caused unnecessary fear among citizens."

According to reports, public security authorities imposed administrative sanctions on both individuals in accordance with relevant laws. Police also provided both with legal education, and it has been reported that the individuals acknowledged their wrongdoing and expressed remorse for their actions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.