Image of Tinubu–Kagame Meeting Carries Grok AI Watermark as Presidency Explains After Backlash

An image released by the presidency showing President Bola Tinubu in a meeting with Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has drawn attention online after users identified a Grok AI watermark on the photo.

The image, which circulated widely on social media, was shared on President Tinubu’s verified X account and showed him seated with Kagame during a reported meeting in Paris, France, on Sunday. The Grok watermark appears at the base of the image.

Grok is a generative artificial intelligence tool developed by xAI, a company owned by Elon Musk. The platform is used for real-time search, image generation, and image enhancement.

Dada Olusegun, special assistant to the president on new media, also shared the same image. Shortly after it appeared online, several users on X questioned its authenticity, suggesting that the photograph may have been generated using artificial intelligence rather than taken at an actual meeting.

One user directly challenged Olusegun, asking why an AI tool was used to produce an image of what was described as an official engagement.

Presidency sources, however, denied claims that the image was artificially generated. According to officials who spoke to The Cable, the photograph was taken during the lunch meeting but later enhanced using Grok due to its poor original quality.

They said the AI tool was used solely to improve clarity, not to create the image from scratch.

President Tinubu left Lagos for Europe on December 28 as part of his end-of-year holiday, during which the Paris meeting reportedly took place.