Drone technology has come a long way and is used for various applications ranging from agriculture to national security. One such interesting application that recently went viral among social media users is drone-operated mobile toilets. However, these posts turned out to be yet another series of AI-generated images by some creative minds!

Let’s look at the claim first.

Social Media Posts

A series of photographs were widely shared stating that the Chinese had developed a flying mobile toilet that uses drone technology and can be delivered to any person at any place with the help of a mobile app.

Facebook | Archi

These posts were shared widely on Facebook and many other social media platforms.

This concept of ‘UBER Toilets’ went viral among social media users, with many commenting sarcastically.

But what’s the truth behind these claims? Is this at least a prototype of a proposed product? Let’s find out.

Fact Check

We first checked whether any mainstream media reported that China had recently carried out a drone-operated toilet of this kind. But we did not see such reports.

After that, we subjected this image to a Reverse Image search. We found that it was not real, but artificial intelligence (AI) generated one.

The creator of these images introduced the concept of these mobile toilets under the name ‘Shattle’. Through this concept, he was trying to introduce a good, clean toilet that is technically empowered in terms of hygiene for the future world.

Also, in addition to the photo used for the viral posts, we noticed that the AI image creator had fashioned many other mobile drone toilet images using an AI image generation tool called Midjourney and published the image collection on Facebook, as seen below.

Archived

We also inquired whether there were any cases in which drone technology was used to provide flying mobile toilets or sanitation facilities and related matters. Especially at the height of the COVID pandemic, drone technology was used to transport essential consumer items and among them was toilet paper. More details on drone deliveries for toilet papers in the US and Australia can be read here. Archived

However, there isn’t any mention of successful real-world projects involving mobile toilets powered by drone technology.

Although methods such as checking the health status of people through various technical tools such as scanners attached to toilets and getting their data into mobile phone tools are already being tried, details about this can be read here. Archived

AI-generated images are increasingly being shared, and there are many instances where such creations have misled social media users. Here is one such fact check on an AI-generated image going viral as the Last Neanderthal Giant Taken In 1901

Conclusion

During our investigation, it was confirmed that the viral photo posts indicating that China had produced a mobile toilet that travels through drone technology were false and fabricated. The image was created using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Title:AI-Generated Images Viral as Drone-Operated Mobile Toilets in China!

WrittenBy: Fact Crescendo Team

Result:False

This article was written by the FACT CRESCENDO TEAM