Netanyahu uses Google AI to generate image of Trump winning Nobel Peace Prize
The use of AI by governments and world leaders to create fake materials is an ever-increasing occurrence
Venezuelan politician and democracy activist María Corina Machado won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, it was announced at a news conference at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo on Friday morning, October 10.
Described as a “woman who keeps the flame of democracy going, amidst a growing darkness”, Machado was awarded the prize “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.
The activist has been in hiding for the past year, after she was barred from running in the 2024 presidential elections. That poll was seen internationally as being neither free nor fair, and triggered mass opposition protests that prompted a new crackdown by Nicolás Maduro’s government.
Trump’s Nobel hopes
The build-up to the Nobel Peace Prize announcement was filled with rhetoric about whether or not U.S. President Donald Trump would receive the gong, with some of his supporters pre-empting the result with hopeful images of him wearing a medal.
Chief among those supporters was Benjamin Netanyahu, whose official Prime Ministerial account posted an image of Donald Trump standing head and shoulders above a crowd wearing a huge medal around his neck, as the Israeli PM celebrated beside him.
The image framed Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, for which he was hoping to win the award, as a joint U.S. and Israeli endeavour — and not an externally mediated plan led by the U.S. and regional partners like Qatar, Egypt and Turkey. The framing also entirely excluded the Palestinian side of the negotiating table, namely Hamas, which also had to agree to the same deal put forward by the U.S.
Government use of AI
Given that the Nobel Peace Prize had not yet been announced, the image was obviously fake. We still wanted to take a closer look, as the use of AI by governments and world leaders to create fake materials is an ever-increasing occurrence, and is also a favourite method of Donald Trump’s administration.
Although AI models are becoming more advanced, they often struggle to portray text in an image and this is often a giveaway. In this one, a sign behind the crowd saying ‘Peace Through Strength’ looks fine, but the writing on the Nobel Prize medal is warped. The design of the medal is also different to images of the prize seen elsewhere.
Google watermark detected
We were able to confirm this image was generated with Google after we ran this image through Google DeepMind’s SynthID detector. All Google-made AI material contains embedded watermarks, allowing the SynthID detector to confirm that a Google product was used to create a piece of content.
Because it detects embedded watermarks, SynthID is far more accurate than other AI detectors which simply analyse an image and give a probability that it was AI-generated. However, the programme only works on material that was made with Google AI, and even if similar programmes were available for cross-platform analysis, not all image generators embed watermarks in their generated content.
Separately, the Israeli government relies heavily on Google products for its public relations and communications efforts. In September, a Eurovision News Spotlight investigation revealed how the Israeli Government Advertising Agency brokered a deal with the U.S. tech giant worth tens of millions of euros over just six months to run ads across the internet, primarily in Google Search results and on YouTube, which is a subsidiary of Google.
This and previous investigations have shown how heavily Israeli government institutions rely on American tech companies, particularly Google, to push their messaging out into the international sphere. In an earlier case, the Israeli Government Advertising Agency was found to have run a wide-ranging campaign of YouTube ads to boost public votes for the Israeli entry in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest.
SOURCES
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: BREAKING NEWS The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2025 #NobelPeacePrize to Maria Corina Machado for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. [Accessed 10 Oct. 2025].
Youtube.com. (2025). Available at: Announcement of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize [Accessed 10 Oct. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: “Give @realDonaldTrump the Nobel Peace Prize - he deserves it!” [Accessed 10 Oct. 2025].
Wikimedia.org. (2016). File:1974 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Eisaku Satō.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. [online] [Accessed 10 Oct. 2025].
Bowler, D., Flannery, M., Heigl, J., Gilbert, M., Wesolowski, K., Schlegel, M., Wackenreuther, E., Graaf, A. de and Nicolay, D. (2025). The new front: Inside Israel’s digital ‘hasbara’ offensive. [online] Spotlight.ebu.ch. [Accessed 10 Oct. 2025].
Bowler, D. and Flannery, M. (2025). Israeli government agency paid for adverts targeting Eurovision Song Contest public vote. [online] Spotlight.ebu.ch. [Accessed 10 Oct. 2025].