Technology

Does a video show a real incident in which an airport ground crew tried to retrieve a piece of metal being sucked into a jet engine? No, that's not true: This video is fake. Along with the unrealistically risky behavior of the ground crew, there are several glitches which point to the video having been AI-generated. The piece of metal…

Does the Department of Justice library of Epstein investigation documents include Document "DOJ-2024-EF-7721" or any documents discussing "Medical regeneration technology" or "MedBeds" or "PROJECT MEDBIRTH"? No, that's not true: The online library of released files from its investigations of the now-dead sex trafficker doesn't include that document ID number. Searching for those phrases without the file number yields zero matches.…

Does a viral video show security camera footage recovered by police that shows the exact moment Savannah Guthrie's mother, Nancy, disappeared? No, that's not true: The Pima County Sheriff, whose office is investigating the kidnapping, has not released security camera footage collected by investigators. Multiple visual artifacts show that it's likely AI-generated or AI-altered video from a different circumstance, mis-labelled…

Did the White House post an alert that all flights were grounded, airspace was restricted and the National Guard had been activated on Feb. 6, 2026? No, that's not true: Nothing on the White House website, the FAA alert history or in real news reporting shows any such actions were taken. The hoax has circulated through traffic farming accounts and…

Did a projector cast onto Trump Tower a cartoon of Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino spilling blood? No, that's not true: The video was created by an artist who told Lead Stories the drawing was theirs, but the montage superimposing it on Trump Tower is AI-generated. The artist previously published the same image of Bovino on their website and on…

Was Nekima Levy Armstrong visibly crying in anguish in a Department of Homeland Security photo of her arrest by the FBI for her role in a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota? No, that's not true: The photo of Armstrong's arrest posted by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem showed Armstrong's face as composed and expressionless. About one half hour…

Does a viral still image actually show the moment an ICE agent fired at Minneapolis resident Renee Good? No, that's not true: The details of the scene don't match real eyewitness videos of the event. The image was first published by an account with a parody label, and that account later said the picture was created by AI. The claim…

Is a photograph of Elsa Thora, a blonde woman, aboard a ship during a military operation authentic? No, that's not true: This is not a real photo. Google's Gemini detected a SynthID watermark embedded in the image indicating that all or part of it was created or edited with Google AI. The image was posted on January 7, 2026, on…

Did South Park do an episode featuring Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the "Quality Learing Center"? No, that's not true: The original video clearly states it was "made with AI." South Park has not aired any episodes since news broke Dec. 26, 2025, about a Minnesota child care center with a misspelled sign. The claim appeared in a January 6,…

Did a 42-year-old mechanic named Mark Delcourt escape from a hospital in the northern U.S. when he realised they were preparing to harvest his organs? No, that's not true: There is no corroborating evidence matching key details of this story. Several of the unrelated clips used in the video can be traced to incidents that happened in other countries and…

Does a video show real footage of a U.K. member of Parliament asking why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not been captured the same way the United States captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela? No, that's not true: The clip was generated using artificial intelligence. Early versions of the video included a watermark indicating a specific generative AI tool. There…

Does an image shared by President Trump in a Truth Social post that reads "Eagles going down!" show an American eagle killed by a wind turbine? No, that's not true: The photograph used to illustrate Trump's post is of a European red kite killed by a wind turbine in Spain at least 15 years earlier. This was the second time…

Did BMW launch a motorized unicycle at the 2026 Tech Expo? No, that's not true: The AI-generated video was published by a channel with a disclaimer that they "explore the future of technology, artificial intelligence, and robotics." This same channel has published similar AI-generated videos showcasing one-wheel vehicles that purportedly came from Honda, Ferrari, Ducati, and Tesla. Searches for press…

Did Rachel Maddow, tennis champion Coco Gauff and former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, plus dozens of other prominent Americans, post identical brave notes from a hospital bed, saying "I still have a long road ahead. But I believe in recovery -- through love, through support, and through everyone's thoughts and prayers."? No, that's not true: The stories, with identical…

Did the company behind the Roblox video game announce it is "shutting down on January 1st"? No, that's not true: A viral screenshot of such a message appeared on an account labeled "parody" on X. It did not come from the official company website and there were no news articles about any such shutdown. The image and claim appeared in…

Have scientists discovered a camel tear contains enough antibodies to neutralize the venom from 26 snakebites? No, that highly specific claim is not true: While poison experts have found snakebite damage to mouse tissues might be reduced using antibodies derived from camel-like species, those studies stop short of saying it is a cure for snakebit humans.The post includes no evidence,…

Is "Tech world on fire" over news that Elon Musk bought Facebook in order to "delete it"? No, that's not true: Meta (which owns Facebook) had not, as of this writing, announced or documented a sale, as is required of publicly traded companies. Lead Stories found no credible news reports of an impending sale to Musk. The site that generated…

Is a video of fresh produce being artificially painted in China real? No, that's not true: The clip originated from an account that labels its content as AI-generated. The video contained multiple inconsistencies strongly pointing to AI. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Instagram, where it was published on December 2, 2025. The caption read: chemical. This…

Is a video claiming that "all of our food is 3D-printed" or contains bioengineered ingredients to be taken seriously? No, that's not true: A TikTok video sent out a confusing message conflating bioengineered food and 3D-printed foods. Both are real things but they don't mean the same thing. The TikTok creator who made the claims as she reviewed food products…

Does a video show two big trucks hauling UFOs or bunkers over a bridge? No, that's not true: The convoy is carrying large industrial air-cooled heat exchangers, also called cooling fans. These induced draft heat exchangers are marked with a Fin-Fan logo, indicating they were manufactured by Hudson Products Corporation of Beasley, Texas. Fans like these may be used in…