Water

Have you seen the viral videos showing mass protests in the streets of British cities? Lead Stories has spotted several such videos recently and found that many were created using artificial intelligence. These videos do not show real people or situations. Instead, they seek to exploit feelings of sympathy and patriotism by triggering emotions such as indignation and anger among…

Does a real photo show Mitch McConnell on life support? No, that's not true: There is no evidence the image depicts an actual moment involving the senior U.S. senator from Kentucky in a hospital. An online AI detection tool found a SynthID watermark, indicating the image was generated using OpenAI tools, and the image contains visual inconsistencies commonly associated with…

Does a viral image show the Sail4th250 tall ships Independence Day parade in New York Harbor on July 4, 2026? No, that's not true: Despite claiming to show one of the real vessels, the picture was "completely fabricated", a representative of the event organizer told Lead Stories. It was an AI-generated image. The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

Have you come across viral videos showing people who appear to mock Native Americans selling Indigenous-style jackets? Lead Stories has identified several of these clips in recent weeks and determined that many were showing "Artificial Indians" (also known as "AI"). The people are not real Native Americans and the scenarios depicted in the videos were not real -- social media…

Does real police bodycam footage show the moment police rescued a kidnapped child at Orlando International Airport? No, that's not true: This video is fake. Google's Gemini verification tool detected a SynthID watermark in the visuals and audio of the video. A search of Google News found no reporting matching a July 2019 incident where Officer Melissa Grant rescued a…

Have you come across viral videos showing how people mock influencers for wearing Christian-themed clothing? Lead Stories has identified several of these clips in recent weeks and determined that many were AI-generated. The people and scenarios depicted there were not real -- social media accounts posted this kind of content to play on religious sentiment, driving likes and shares as…

Does a real video show inappropriate "before" behavior by a woman later photographed surrounded by Patriot Front on a Metro train on July 4, 2026? No, that's not true: The video captioned, "before Patriot Front" is fake. Google's Gemini verification tool determined the video "was edited or generated using Google AI" and there were visual glitches such as a missing…

Have you seen viral videos showing large cruise ship disasters with the boats sinking dramatically into the water? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. The videos have similar looking cruise ships sinking with various crowds watching as the ships go down. Some of these accounts…

Does a real photo show Kyle Rittenhouse in an office space with Lil Wayne? No, that's not true: The image was created with tools from OpenAI. It follows a trend of showing Lil Wayne in different places after he missed a concert in Bangor, Maine. The claim appeared in a post made on X on July 2, 2026, by @rittenhouse2a,…

Have you seen viral videos showing people, mostly veterans in military fatigues with the U.K.'s flag, invoking patriotism to make social media users follow a specific account? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. Some of these accounts post videos of different-looking men saying the exact…