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Does a viral video that claims to document a $350,000 lawsuit against a crane operator who accidentally smashed his boss's vehicle show real footage from the courtroom? No, that's not true: The creator of the video called it an example of "dramatized fiction." Two online AI detectors and Lead Stories' manual analysis also confirmed the presence of generative AI in…

Are viral posts real that claim Cole Allen, the suspect in the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting, worked as a driver for dozens of celebrities? No, that's not true: The false claim is part of an AI-generated series of articles and posts created by a spam operation managed from Vietnam. Fake fan pages are used to target North American and…

Is a video real that shows a squirrel spinning on top of a Waymo car? No, that's not true: The clip is a digital creation, not authentic footage. It includes a faint AI watermark in the upper-left corner and visual glitches in the background, both of which are common indicators of synthetic media. Also, an AI detection tool stated that…

Did Colonel Richard Whitmore give his wheelchair-bound daughter Eleanor to Josiah Freeman, a 7-foot-tall enslaved man, after she was deemed unmarriageable? No, that's not true: This story is not based on true historical events, but is a fictional romance, illustrated with AI-generated images and details that may seem like real documentation. The earliest mention of a story involving people by…

Does a video show a real incident where a tiger escaped its cage while a keeper was cleaning the hall with a hose? No, that's not true: This video is AI-generated. It was originally published on Instagram by an account that almost exclusively posts similar videos of close encounters between keepers and dangerous animals. The account does not disclose the…

Did the Orion spacecraft from Artemis II take exactly 42 minutes 50 seconds to pass the dark side of the moon, the same as the runtime of the Pink Floyd album by that name? No, that's not true: NASA told Lead Stories that the spacecraft's transit around the Moon's far side was close to 50 minutes. Another way to measure…

Does a photo posted by Donald Trump on Truth Social accurately show how Bruce Springsteen looks now, or prior to plastic surgery? No, that's not true: The image has been digitally edited to make the 76-year-old rocker appear haggard. A candid photo of Springsteen posted on Instagram in 2024 shows that he did not look like that at the time.…

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 an Artemis II photo taken in April 2026 show the same cloud patterns as an Apollo 8 photo from 1968? No, that's not true: The "Artemis 2" image, dated April 6, 2026, is AI-generated and is based on the famous Apollo 8 photo known as "Earthrise." There are no official NASA photos from Artemis II that match the fake…

Did a microphone at a press briefing catch the audible sound of a fart from Pete Hegseth, the secretary of war? No, that's not true: The press briefing clip published by the Iranian Embassy in Kenya has been edited to include a fart sound effect. The original video published on Instagram on March 13, 2026, the day of the press…