The Duke University men’s swim team seems to have been putting significant time in the weight room in the regular season… at least, that’s what their pictures show.
A post to the team’s Instagram account earlier this week showed members of the men’s swimming and diving program with impossibly ripped physiques.
The images showed athletes in the water and on diving boards with killer abs and massive shoulder muscles.
‘Duke Swim & Dive men are ready for ACCs!’ the account posted, referring to the upcoming Atlantic Coast Conference championships.
However, it doesn’t take a super sleuth to realize that these images were very clearly generated by AI.
It didn’t help that many of the images showed the athletes with the same Duke ‘D’ tattoo on their chests which had linework that would make even the worst artist shudder. In one of the pictures, a diver was shown having six fingers on his left hand.
The Duke men’s swimming and diving team shared AI images of their athletes with big muscles
The images were shared to the team’s Instagram account ahead of the ACC Championships
But with the badly drawn tattoos and the six fingers on this athlete’s left hand, it’s clear AI
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Should sports teams be allowed to use AI-generated images to hype up their athletes or is it misleading?
Still, the post went viral – with many in the comments section joking about the photos.
‘Lifting coach needs a raise,’ read one of the comments on Instagram.
Another joked, ‘So nice to see people achieve a solid beginner physique! Hopefully with more time in the gym they can really develop into their full potential!’
‘Imagine actually trying to swim fly with traps that big!’ read another comment.
There were also plenty of people who were critical over the use of AI to generate these images.
But, somehow, there were also a number of people who either believed the images were real or had to ask if this was AI.
