South Korean police have arrested a man for sharing an AI-generated image that misled authorities who were searching for a wolf that had broken out of a zoo in Daejeon city.
The 40-year-old unnamed man is accused of disrupting the search by creating and distributing a fake photo purporting to show Neukgu, the wolf, trotting down a road intersection.
The photo, circulated hours after Neukgu went missing on 8 April, prompted authorities to urgently relocate their search operation, sending them on a wild wolf chase.
The hunt for two-year-old Neukgu gripped the nation before he was finally caught near an expressway last week, nine days after his escape.
The AI-generated image of Neukgu had prompted Daejeon city government to issue an emergency text to residents, warning them of a wolf near the intersection. Authorities also presented the AI image during a press briefing on the runaway wolf, local media reported.
