Midjourney

Do viral videos prove the existence of a creature named "Sleeping Rose Mantis" that transforms itself into a flower? No, that's not true: No databases of scientific literature reviewed by Lead Stories showed any mentions of such an insect. The videos were initially published by an account that mentioned generative AI tools in their descriptions. The claim appeared in a…

Do viral images authentically capture the massive destruction caused by Hurricane Milton at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida? No, that's not true: Those pictures were generated by AI and first posted on a website with a satire label. On October 11, 2024, Disney announced it had reopened its theme parks. The claim appeared in a video (archived here)…

Does an image of a shirtless boxer in black briefs show new evidence that the Olympic women's boxing champion from Algeria, Imane Khelif, is really a man? No, that's not true: This photo is fake and was posted on X by an account that publishes only AI-generated images. It has several telltale signs of AI such as strange, glyph-like text…

Do images shared on Facebook genuinely show what appears to be a UFO in the "remote desert of Egypt"? No, that's not true: Hive Moderation, an online tool used to detect AI-generated images, confirmed that it was 99.6 percent likely the images were created using AI. They were first published to a Reddit thread about content generated using the AI…

Did a Jewish family hire Thomas Matthew Crooks to shoot former President Donald Trump? Or was Crooks trained to shoot by the CEO of BlackRock Security or by a rabbi? Has footage been leaked showing Crooks and the BlackRock CEO together carrying a gun? No, none of these claims are true: Using an AI-detection tool, Lead Stories found that the…

Does an Instagram image that shows police forcibly leading away an angry Donald Trump accurately represent what happened after his May 30, 2024, conviction on 34 felony counts? No, that's not true: This is an AI-generated image that surfaced on social media after a New York City jury found Trump guilty of concealing hush-money payments. A tool for detecting AI-generated…

Does a photo on Facebook actually show rapper Sean "P. Diddy" Combs seated next to former President Donald Trump and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as the two men snuggle with young women? No, that's not true: A previous fact check by Lead Stories determined that another version of the photo that did not include Combs was likely AI-generated.…

Did former Vice President Mike Pence, who is a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, carry a rainbow flag in a parade while dressed in a white suit with a rainbow-striped shirt? No, that's not true: This is an AI-generated image. The image features characteristic AI flaws in the rendering of Pence's right hand, and the AI detection tool…

Did MSNBC try to pass off a fake picture of the Titan submersible wreckage found on the sea floor in a live broadcast of breaking news footage? No, that's not true: The image of the debris did not originate on a live MSNBC broadcast and does not show a piece of debris from the Titan submersible, or wreckage from any…

Does a photograph authentically show Tom Cruise with his two "stunt doubles"? No, that's not true: An image shared widely on social media in June 2023 was generated using the artificial intelligence program Midjourney, the image creator confirmed to Lead Stories. A version of the claim originated in an image shared to Twitter on June 7, 2023, (archived here) that…