Fact Check: AI-Enhanced Photo Shows Moment When Fauci's…
An AI-enhanced photo circulating on social media depicts Christine Grady gesturing at a photographer while driving through Washington D.C.
- Incident date
- Aug 2026
- Target
- Christine Grady
A viral image circulating on social media platform X claims to show Christine Grady, wife of Dr. Anthony Fauci, flipping off a photographer while the couple drove through their Washington, D.C. neighborhood. While the underlying action captured in the photograph is authentic, the image itself has been digitally altered using AI-enhancement tools.
What happened
The original photograph was published by the New York Post on August 6, 2026, and captured by Andrew Thomas for Consolidated News Photos. In this original frame, raindrops and reflections are clearly visible on the vehicle's window. On August 8, 2026, the account @ericmmatheny shared a version of this image on X with a critical caption. This modified version utilized AI-enhancement to remove the raindrops and reflections from the window, resulting in a clearer, manipulated visual. Analysis using the Hive Moderation AI-Generated Content Detection tool yielded an aggregated score of 68.2%, indicating that the post was likely AI-generated or AI-modified.