Do a pair of real images show a Nepal town before and after a flash flood washed through the valley? No, that's not true: Both the before and after images are AI-generated. The OpenAI Verify tool found SynthID watermarks in each image, indicating the images were generated using OpenAI tools. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published by…
Does a real video show a bridge in Nepal collapsing during flooding in the region? No, that's not true: An online detection tool rated the clip as 100% likely to have been generated by AI, rather than actual footage of the Aug. 26, 2026, flooding disaster. The video also contains several glitches that are common signs of AI-generated content. The…
Does a real video show flood waters in Nepal destroying an entire village street? No, that's not true: An online detection tool rated the video as 97.2% likely generated by AI and not actual footage of the Aug. 26, 2026 flooding disaster. There are several glitches in the video that are the hallmarks of AI. The claim appeared in an…
Does a real video show an F-16 drop a bomb on a dam, causing the floods in Nepal? No, that's not true: The video has been circulating on social media since May 2026, predating the Aug. 26, 2026, flash flood in Nepal. Early copies of the video have an AI watermark and were published at the same time as a…
Is the graphic of "Parental Child Homicides by Gender of Perpetrator" based on a real 2016 paper by Ribaux, L., et al.? No, that's not true: No such article appeared in the journal Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, as cited in the graphic. The issue's table of contents contains no article by an author with the last name Ribaux, nor is…
Did a woman jump from a helicopter to a trampoline by the Colosseum in Rome, and bounce back up to catch hold of the helicopter's tail? No, that's not true: the architecture of the Colosseum and surrounding city do not align with the real location and there are glitches with the shadows in the video. Additionally, one AI video detector…
Is a video that shows a lion reuniting with a female caretaker and allowing the woman to embrace it real? No, that's not true: The original video appears to be AI-generated. The account that originally posted the video has posted other AI animal content. The claim appeared in a video posted by X account @korkuvetitremee on Aug. 21, 2026 (archived…
Does a viral image of a dad dressed in his wife's clothes while picking up his son from school after suspension for bullying show a real-life event? No, that's not true: The image originated from an account with a self-described satire label. Four online AI detection tools ruled that the picture was artificially generated. The claim appeared in a post…
Does a real photo show Hakeem Jeffries eating with Jeffrey Epstein? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the House Democratic leader ever ate with or met Epstein. The image is AI-generated, according to two online detection tools, with one saying, "Most or all of this image was edited or generated with Google AI," and the other saying…
Does a real photo show someone dressed as Spider-Man punching Jake Lang at a protest in Minneapolis? No, that's not true: This specific image is AI-generated, although a person dressed as Spider-Man was filmed attacking Lang and later both were arrested. The OpenAI Verify tool found a SynthID watermark in the image indicating it was made with OpenAI tools. The…
Is a viral video of a man climbing onto the roof of a moving car and then crashing into a truck real? No, that's not true: The clip originated from an account that publishes AI-generated content. The video contained inconsistencies pointing to AI. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) published on X by @BricxNews on Aug.…
Does a real video from the Epstein files show a cannibalism party where Epstein is carving into a trussed and cooked human corpse? No, that's not true: Scenes of this cannibalism party came from the production of a fake trailer for a horror movie named Thanksgiving. A mix of real images from the movie trailer production and AI-generated scenes derived…
Is a video showing Celine Dion confessing to drinking the blood of children real? No, that's not true: The altered clip posted on social media uses footage from a documentary that shows Dion having a seizure and recovering. She does not say that she ate children or drank their blood in the original video. The claim appeared in an Aug.…
Does a real video show UK police officers tackling scooter thieves? No, that's not true: A visual inspection by Lead Stories found several glitches characteristic of AI-generated content. There are no credible media reports about the incidents shown in the clips. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) made on X by the user @mr_viewX on Aug. 22, 2026.…
Have you seen viral videos showing dogs being rescued from train or subway tracks? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real people risking their lives to save their real pets and many of them seem to have been created to exploit…
Does a real video show an actual subway line collapse that happened in Taiwan? No, that's not true: the Hive Moderation AI detection tool rated the video as 99.9% likely to be AI-generated. There are no credible sources that have reported on such an incident. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) made on X by @ai_videoss, published on…
Is there a real video of Rep. Nancy Mace dancing and grimacing in a sexy black dress? No, that's not true: The original video was posted by a comedian on Instagram. The video has been doctored to add Mace's face and arm tattoos to the footage. The claim appeared in an Aug. 20, 2026, video posted on X account @SpencerHakimian…
Does a real video show a bike rider swerving toward pedestrians before being pushed to the ground? No, that's not true: An AI detection tool concluded that the video showing the incident was generated using artificial intelligence, assigning it a 97.4% confidence score. The video also contains visual glitches that are common indicators of synthetic media. The claim appeared in…
Is a video claiming to be from the Daily Express reporting that U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham plans to bring 4,000 migrants from Ceuta into the United Kingdom real? No, that's not true: The Daily Express did not produce the video or publish such a report. The fake story also appeared on a website designed to mimic the newspaper's real…
Is a video real that shows a woman violently falling down stairs, seemingly pushed by something supernatural, after a cat passes by? No, that's not true: The video is clearly marked "made with AI." An online detection tool rated the video as 76% likely to be AI-generated. The claim appeared in an Aug. 17, 2026, video posted on X account…
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