Does a clip authentically show U.S. military vehicles patrolling the U.S. border? No, that's not true: The video was generated by AI. An account self-described as an "AI Creater" originally posted the video. The clip also contained discrepancies strongly pointing to AI and included the watermark of an AI creation program.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on January 23, 2025. It said:
Our Military is now securing America's Borders instead of foreign countries.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Jan 24 14:58:27 2025 UTC)
The entry implied that the video portrayed the U.S. military at the border, but the footage was not authentic.
The top left corner showed a watermark naming an account on TikTok that previously posted the same clip in better quality (archived here). That account's description (archived here) read:
Ai Creater - Positive & Dark Improvisation, Parody and Satire
The top right corner of the clip displayed another watermark: PixVerse.Ai, an AI video generator.
A closer examination of the video showed that it contained apparent discrepancies pointing to AI. For example, what was reminiscent of a helicopter-size drone was surrounded by an artificial-looking glow:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Jan 24 15:16:14 2025 UTC)
The convoy of the supposed military vehicles was moving on the unpaved road. However, the tires left no ruts in the road, as shown in the screenshot below:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Jan 24 14:59:19 2025 UTC)
Finally, despite a relatively high resolution allowing one to see vehicle details, a banner in the video contained illegible words. As seen in the screenshot below, one supposed "service member" standing next to the banner lacked any facial features and another didn't have a head:
(Source: TikTok screenshot compilation taken on Fri Jan 24 15:15:30 2025 UTC)
The clip reviewed in this article started circulating on social media after President Donald Trump's executive orders (archived here) evoking a national emergency at the southern border.
On January 22, 2025, the Pentagon announced (archived here) that "the acting secretary of defense authorized us to deploy about 1,500 service members to support and work together with Customs and Border Protection down in San Diego and El Paso," following the White House directives. According to the agency, roughly 2,500 military personnel were already there during the briefing.
Read more
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims concerning AI-generated content can be found here. Fact checks of claims mentioning Donald Trump are here.
