Ai Generated

Did Stevie Nicks, Tom Brady, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Elon Musk, or dozens of other entertainers, sports stars, or media figures defend Donald Trump from accusations he's authoritarian and trying to cancel elections? No, that's not true: The identical story is told about at least 55 celebrities who purportedly said "This disorder is being used to scare Americans. To convince…

Was Alex Pretti fired over complaints of inappropriate conduct with patients three months before federal agents fatally shot him on a Minneapolis street? No, that's not true: The claim was started by a spam factory based in Vietnam that uses artificial tools to publish fake articles promoted by Facebook pages also managed from Vietnam. The article named the wrong hospital…

Did Ilhan Omar pose smiling with Anthony Kazmierczak who was holding up a bottle of Fiji water and flashing a cash fan? No, that's not true: This AI-generated image is one of several published by an X account. The account has a disclaimer that says it posts memes and videos to fake out gullible people: "We find em all and…

Does a video showing a muzzle flash, smoke, and sparks from a bullet hitting pavement accurately show the handgun taken from Alex Pretti misfiring just before he was fatally shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis? No, that's not true: The short video was created by an artificial intelligence tool, although based on a real video of that moment. The social…

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…

Did the parents of Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse shot to death by ICE agents in Minneapolis, say their son quit his hospital job months earlier and showed "unusual behavior"? No, that's not true: A statement released by Pretti's parents referenced his work as an ICU nurse at a Veterans Administration hospital, but it did not say that he had…

Does a high resolution image of the scuffle between immigration officers and Alex Pretti provide a more clear picture of what happened just before Pretti was shot? No, that's not true: This AI-enhanced image was created from an extremely blurry still taken from a video. AI-hallucinated flaws appear as crisp visual details where the original image was indistinct. The resulting…

Did Tom Brady and three dozen other sports and entertainment celebrities confirm that Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse fatally shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis, was a relative? No, that's not true: The claim was made about at least 36 different athletes and entertainers in posts published on dozens of fake Facebook fan pages aimed at American and European…

Did either Karoline Leavitt, Sunny Hostin, Whoopi Goldberg, or Joy Behar say that Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, or a dozen other major artists is "just a musician"? No, that's not true: The claim was made about at least 16 different entertainers in posts published on dozens of fake Facebook fan pages aimed at American and European…

Did Karoline Leavitt dismiss various celebrities, saying "complex social policy" was "out of their league" and dismissing them as just a singer, musician, actor or comedian? No, that's not true: The claim about a televised confrontation in a TV studio was made about at least 26 different people in posts published on dozens of fake Facebook fan pages aimed at…