Do photos confirm Elon Musk and Sydney Sweeney are dating?

A rumor that circulated on social media in January 2026 claimed photos confirmed tech billionaire Elon Musk and actor Sydney Sweeney were dating. Two images showed the pair either kissing (archived) or looking into each other’s eyes (archived). A third picture depicted many people — perhaps including paparazzi — photographing the pair in front of the Nobu restaurant in Los Angeles (archived).

In short, all three images were fake and generated with artificial intelligence.

Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no news media outlets reporting any news of Musk dating Sweeney. Entertainment news outlets would have widely covered the alleged romantic development if it had really occurred — especially if photographers captured pictures of the pair in front of an L.A. restaurant.

Days before the fake images appeared on social media, news outlets and tabloids, including People, Page Six and others, reported Sweeney was in a relationship with investor and former talent agent Scooter Braun.

The fake images surfaced online in the weeks following Musk twice (archived) referencing (archived) the size of Sweeney’s breasts in X posts.

Snopes emailed a representative for Sweeney to ask about the images. We also messaged two X users mentioned later in this story to inquire about the generative-AI tools they or others used to create the fake images and will update this article if we receive a response.

Fake images show Musk dating Sweeney

On Jan. 14, X user @distributedkv posted (archived) an AI-generated image showing Musk and Sweeney kissing in a room with a fireplace. The post, which was viewed millions of times, had a caption reading, “BREAKING: Elon Musk and Sydney Sweeney are reportedly dating.”

(@distributedkv/X)

Hours later, X user @alpaysh posted (archived) another AI-generated image showing Musk and Sweeney looking into each other’s eyes in the back of a car. Its caption read, “BREAKING: Elon Musk and Sydney Sweeney are reportedly dating.” The post also had millions of views, but fewer than the previous one with the fireplace setting.

(@alpaysh/X)

The third fake image, also shared (archived) Jan. 14, appeared on another X user’s account. The image depicted Musk and Sweeney in front of the Nobu restaurant in Los Angeles, with many people photographing the pair. The caption read, “BREAKING: Elon Musk and Sidney Sweeney spotted together in LA.” The post received tens of thousands of views.

(@Burnzzz0/X)

According to Google Street View, the Nobu restaurant in L.A. has a different sign than the one shown in the fake image.

Prompts with the Google Gemini AI tool SynthID Detector scanned all three images for a SynthID watermark — a hidden label Google adds to images made or manipulated with its AI platforms.

For the kissing and restaurant images, Gemini answered, “Most or all of this image was edited or generated with Google AI.”

For the image depicting the pair in the back of a car, Gemini answered, “Based on my analysis, this image was generated or edited using Google AI.”

For further reading on how the SynthID Detector can help assess photographic authenticity, see our previous report on an image allegedly showing former U.S. President Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump cuddling in bed.

Sources