AI Tools Reportedly Used to Fabricate Image of 5,000-Naira Nigerian Banknote Featuring President Bola Tinubu

An image circulated on Nigerian social media in late January 2025 purporting to show a newly issued 5,000-naira banknote featuring President Bola Tinubu. The Central Bank of Nigeria denied the claim, and fact-checkers reported that the image was likely generated using an AI tool linked to the platform X, based on a visible Grok watermark.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 3 Misinformation
• Primary risk subdomain: 3.1 False or misleading information

The incident involved the generation and viral spread of a false image of a N5,000 banknote, leading to inaccurate beliefs among social media users about the Central Bank of Nigeria's policies.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Intentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The incident was caused by human users who intentionally generated a fake banknote image using Grok and shared it on social media to misinform the public.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Risk Level 3. Limited Risk: The report describes the use of Grok to generate synthetic media (a fake banknote image), which falls under AI-generated content and deepfakes requiring transparency obligations.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: Grok (xAI)
• AI purpose: Deepfake Image Generation; Social Media Content Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: xAI
• Alleged deployer: Unknown X (Twitter) users, Unidentified social media users
• Alleged harmed parties: Public trust in the naira, General public of Nigeria, Central Bank of Nigeria

Harm severity

Highest direct severity in any category: Minor. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Privacy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

Malicious content

Reported: The report describes the creation and spread of an AI-generated image of a fake N5,000 banknote on social media.

Directly caused: An AI-generated image of a fake N5,000 banknote featuring President Bola Tinubu was created using Grok and shared on Facebook.

Indirectly caused: N/A

Inferred additional harm: N/A

Epistemic

Reported: The report explicitly describes epistemic harm in the form of AI-generated misinformation regarding a fake banknote.

Directly caused: Social media users were misled into believing the Central Bank of Nigeria unveiled a new N5,000 note featuring President Bola Tinubu.

Indirectly caused: N/A

Inferred additional harm: It is likely that thousands of social media users in Nigeria were exposed to this misinformation, potentially eroding trust in official central bank communications.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly exposed: 100

Potential causes

Management

• Inadequate Platform Safeguards: X and Grok management failed to prevent misuse of image generation.

Technology

• AI Image Generation Capabilities: Grok allowed generation of realistic currency notes depicting the President.
• Easily Removable Watermarks: The Grok watermark was easily cropped out of the image by malicious users.

Data Inputs

• Training on President Likeness: AI model trained on public figures, enabling generation of Tinubu's face.
• Training on Currency Designs: AI model trained on bank note imagery, enabling realistic currency creation.

Human Factors

• Intentional Deception by Users: Social media users cropped watermarks to intentionally spread misinformation.
• Public Credulity: Users shared unverified fake news due to history of currency redesigns.

Process and Methods

• Lack of Image Verification: Social media platforms lacked automated tools to detect cropped AI watermarks.
• Lack of Prompt Filters on Grok: Grok's generation process lacked filters preventing currency counterfeits.

Regulatory Environment

• Lack of AI Content Regulations: Absence of strict regulations in Nigeria governing AI-generated misinformation.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report clearly identifies the AI tool used (Grok), the nature of the misinformation (fake N5,000 note), and the platform where it circulated (Facebook). There is little ambiguity about the events.

An AI-generated image of a fake N5,000 Nigerian banknote featuring President Tinubu was circulated on social media. Generated using Grok, the image was quickly debunked by fact-checkers and the Central Bank of Nigeria. The incident represents a minor, human-controlled misinformation event with minor national security implications.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Response level: Moderate
• Scope: Single nation
• Primary target: Nigeria
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. The immediate misinformation has been debunked, leaving only long-term strategic concerns regarding AI-generated fake media.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI tool Grok was directly prompted and controlled by human users to generate the synthetic image.
• Novelty: Established threat. The creation and dissemination of altered or synthetic images to spread financial misinformation is a well-established threat vector.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical systems, critical infrastructure, or human safety elements were affected or threatened by the incident.
• Information security: Minor. Represents a minor information manipulation effort using an AI-generated image of a fake banknote to deceive the public, though it lacks indications of a coordinated state-sponsored campaign.
• Sovereignty: Minor. Minor attempt to misrepresent decisions of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the President, but did not disrupt core government operations or decision-making.
• Economic security: Minor. Involved fake currency imagery but did not result in actual financial loss, counterfeit distribution, or disruption to Nigeria's financial systems.
• Societal stability: Negligible. No evidence of systemic discrimination, mass surveillance, or civil unrest resulting from the circulation of the fake banknote image.