A Malaysian man is facing up to three years in a Singaporean prison — after an ill-conceived text containing AI slop shut down the city-state’s largest reservoir for days.
According to the BBC, the bizarre incident started when the 30-year-old Ye Lin sent his colleague a photo of a saltwater crocodile — entirely generated by Google Gemini — lurking in the Pandan Reservoir, a 435-acre basin in Singapore’s western residential district. To put the body of water into perspective, the Central Park Reservoir in the heart of New York City is roughly a quarter of the size, standing at just 106 acres.
Though it isn’t known exactly how, Ye’s image evidently kicked off a dramatic game of telephone, which eventually made its way to officials at Singapore’s national water agency.
As the BBC reports, the reservoir ended up getting shut down as water agency officials and national park staff trawled the waters in search of the nonexistent crocodile. Groups whose activities center around the reservoir, like the Singapore Canoe Federation and the Singapore Rowing Association, likewise suspended their operations as the search commenced.
After examining the image with a fine-tooth comb, government officials determined it was merely a bit of AI slop, the kind which is supercharging misinformation across much of the world’s internet. Ye was then charged with “sending a false message,” a crime in Singapore bearing a maximum sentence of up to three years in prison, and a possible fine of around $8,000.
It doesn’t really help that Ye allegedly scrubbed the material from his phone, making it look like he was attempting to conceal evidence and earning him an additional charge of “obstructing the course of justice.”
As South China Morning Post reported, Ye told the court he plans to plead guilty to the charges.
“Apart from causing fear and inconvenience to members of the public, such falsehoods also result in public resources being unnecessarily deployed to deal with these incidents,” police said in a statement shared by SCMP.
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