One of the AI-generated images published by Amnesty International

The images, which were shared to Amnesty’s Instagram account with over one million followers as as well as tweeted from national Twitter accounts, included a small disclaimer in the bottom-left corner reading: “Illustrations produced by artificial intelligence”.

The social media posts have been removed following an outcry, including from human rights campaigners who said the use of AI-generated imagery could discredit human rights defenders.

Amnesty said it used AI-generated imagery in place of real photographs to protect protesters from retribution.

However, Sam Gregory, executive director of human rights group WITNESS, told Gizmodo that there better ways to anonymise images without relying on artificial intelligence.

“We’ve spent the last five years talking to hundreds of activists and journalists and others globally who already face delegitimisation of their images and videos under claims that they are faked,” he said.

Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty’s director for Americas, told The Guardian: “We have removed the images from social media posts, as we don’t want the criticism for the use of AI-generated images to distract from the core message in support of the victims and their calls for justice in Colombia.

“But we do take the criticism seriously and want to continue the engagement to ensure we understand better the implications and our role to address the ethical dilemmas posed by the use of such technology.”