Technology

Does a viral video on YouTube discuss a real-life scandal involving BBC host "James Whitmore" mocking Filipino Doctor "Elena Reyes" for her accent? No, that's not true: The story was made up by AI. Multiple online tools detected AI across different elements of the story, and the BBC website showed no record of either the host or the guest. The…

Does a viral video show high-resolution "unedited raw security footage" of the suspected shooter running through a checkpoint at the 2026 White House Correspondents' dinner? No, that's not true: The video was enhanced with AI, and, in the process, the technology altered the details. The clip showed glitches typical of AI-generated content, and the account that first published it confirmed…

Are viral posts claiming your favorite celebrity family adopted or had twin babies and giving them names that "are taking the internet by storm" real? No, that's not true: Nearly identical posts naming at least 49 celebrity families were distributed on Facebook in mid-April 2026 by a spam network managed from Vietnam. The posts appear to be AI-generated and have…

Does a real video show a hands-free floating drone-powered umbrella? No, that's not true: The video of a woman doing chores on a dairy farm on a rainy day is AI-generated. Engineers have experimented with various approaches to make this idea a reality, but this specific video is not real. The video appeared in a post on X published by…

Does a court filing definitively state that the bullet that killed Charlie Kirk does not match the rifle allegedly used by Tyler Robinson? No, that's not true: In court documents, defense lawyers said a summary report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives indicates the agency was unable to match up the bullet recovered from Kirk. The defense…

Was a President Donald Trump quote from a video really about Iran hitting the "world's biggest aircraft carrier" from "17 angles" while planes were taking off every 32 seconds at one in the morning? No, that's not true: The quote was pulled from a longer video in which it is clear Trump was describing the hypothetical reaction of a Venezuelan…

Were the pilots of the Air Canada plane that crashed into a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport both females? No, that's not true: The pilot and co-pilot killed in the ground collision have been identified as Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther. The FAA administrator described the two as "young men at the start of their careers" during a March 23,…

Does a viral video purporting to show the ruins of an Amazon data center in the Middle East document a real scene? No, that's not true: The video contained multiple signs pointing to AI, including an incorrectly spelled company's name and a person who appears headless and then grows a head in less than a second. According to Google, the…

Is a video that shows a "woman who identifies as a dog" being attacked by a dog real? No, that's not true: An online AI video detection tool determined that the clip is 97.3 percent likely to be AI generated. There are several telltale signs of AI in the video. The claim appeared in a March 17, 2026, video posted…

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…