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Read the following text and answer the quiz below.
[1] Brygida is a Polish woman who recently moved to London. Last month, she headed to Buckingham Palace after seeing online posts of a traditional Christmas market outside the gates. But when she got there, there was no sign of a market outside the royal residence. Then she realised the fake images were generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
[2] “We went there thinking it was real,” the 25-year-old bankworker told Agence France-Presse. “I thought I would see it for the first time in history. I thought I was lucky, but we were really sad when we saw there [wasn’t] anything like that.
[3] Several content creators posted AI-generated images of the non-existent Christmas market, promising “a royal Christmas experience like never before”. The posts spread, appearing in languages such as Thai, Portuguese and Arabic.
[4] Other visitors outside the palace had also been fooled. “I’ve seen it on TikTok and Instagram reels, that there was going to be a Christmas market for the first time ever here at Buckingham Palace,” said Emma Paxton, a 26-year-old chemical engineer from Boston. “It looked pretty real,” Paxton said, but she realised it was fake a few days before arriving on holiday.
[5] Lucas is a Frenchman living in London. He told Agence France-Presse he had “heard a lot” about a market “next to the actual palace” from friends living abroad. “I just found out now, with you, that it’s actually AI-based,” said Lucas, who declined to give his full name. He said that he felt “a bit of frustration”.
[6] Several bloggers posted videos debunking the claim, including the Love and London travel blog. It pointed out that in the AI images, the market appears to be in an area closed to the public and the festive lights hang from the sky. London has several genuine Christmas markets, including one in Trafalgar Square.
[7] The AI market images first appeared in September, after the Royal Collection Trust (RCT), which organises visits to the palace, posted an announcement about a small pop-up Christmas shop. The RCT responded to fake posts on its website, stating that the shop is “not a Christmas market” and that “there will not be a Christmas market at Buckingham Palace”.
Source: Agence France-Presse, November 21
