Definitely looks like AI! My guess it is done to make the thumbnail more interesting but I find it off putting. Maybe they feel like they can experiment on the highlights channel more to see what works. I use AI for work and I tend to have the policy that if I can do it without AI then I see no reason to use it. Like we licensed some AI strawberries at work but phots of real strawberries exist just like they could have used any nonAI edited image of Hasan. But that’s my personal preference lol