Deepfake

Does a video on social media show what posts described as Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, "hiding in schools thinking Israel won't bomb them"? No, that's not true: It's not real footage. The clip was made with generative AI from a photo that predated the Feb. 28, 2026, U.S.-Israel attack on Iran, as well as the following escalation. The claim…

Is a video showing Erling Haaland, a Manchester City footballer, reciting the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith, and converting to Islam, real? No, that's not true: An online AI video detection tool determined that the clip is 100% "likely to be AI-Generated." A separate also tool found that the video showed signs of having been created or modified using…

Is a video showing a Politico report claiming Germany is preparing to take in 400,000 Palestinian refugees real? No, that's not true: There are no reports from Politico or any other news organization that Germany plans to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees, Palestinian or otherwise. In addition, an online AI detection tool determined that the audio in the…

Does a viral video claiming to show a strike on a U.S. military base in Jordan or the Gulf actually show such an attack? No, that's not true: Lead Stories' analysis found multiple inconsistencies pointing to AI, including a fake U.S. flag missing all 50 stars that represent the 50 states. The video did not originate from a credible media…

Did Waffle House announce plans to put floating restaurants on lakes across the southeastern United States to serve boaters, anglers, and waterfront homes? No, that's not true: A Waffle House official told Lead Stories there were no such plans. An image of a floating Waffle House in the middle of a lake, surrounded by boats, was generated by an artificial…

Is this a real video of President Donald Trump kissing Nicki Minaj? No, that's not true: The black-and-white "security camera" footage purporting to show them kissing exhibits clear signs of AI manipulation, including unnatural facial blending where their faces appear to partially merge and separate, inconsistent lighting, and the absence of a verifiable source. An AI detection tool rated it…

Does an image show Attorney General Pam Bondi at age 14 with President Donald Trump at a Jeffrey Epstein party? No, that's not true: An AI-generated content detector concluded that it was 99.9% certain to have been made by an artificial intelligence tool. Lead Stories found obvious signs that it was a deepfake image in 2023 when we fact checked…

Does a real photo of Zohran Mamdani as a child with his mother Nora Nair and Jeffrey Epstein prove the new mayor of New York City is Epstein's illegitimate child? No, that's not true: The image, which includes Ghislaine Maxwell, former President Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, was made with an artificial intelligence tool. It originated on a parody account…

Did "CBS Investigative News" report that the man arrested after spraying a liquid on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar at a Minneapolis town hall meeting was on the payroll of a winery co-owned by her husband? No, that's not true: There's no record of such a story on CBS' website or in a global index of stories from thousands of news sites.…

Is a photo showing Melania Trump kissing Jeffrey Epstein on the lips real? No, that's not true: The Hive Moderation AI detection tool was conclusive that the image was created by an artificial intelligence tool, rating it at 98.8 percent certainty. Online searches found no examples of the image earlier than one shared in an X post on December 17,…