Did a viral story about singer Robert Plant donating $1.5 million to Texas flood victims come from a reliable source? No, that's not true: The article appeared on a clickbait site that published several other fake stories about celebrity donations in the recent past. Even though the story claimed there were "no cameras or press crews" it was illustrated with an AI-generated photo of Plant sitting in front of a boat labeled "Texas Flood Relief.
The story appeared as an article (archived here) published on July 13, 2025 titled "Robert Plaпt's Uпbelievable Act of Compassioп: $1.5 Millioп Doпatioп aпd a Walk Throυgh the Texas Floods" which opened:
In a world where celebrity philanthropy often means a check signed from a distance, Robert Plant has rewritten the script. The legendary frontman of Led Zeppelin, known for his powerful voice and poetic lyrics that have resonated with millions over decades, didn't just donate $1.5 million to help victims of the catastrophic Texas floods he put on his boots, rolled up his sleeves, and walked through the destruction, fully immersed in the lives of those who had lost everything.
The story also said:
"I'm here to hold their hands, not just sign a check," Plant said, as he stood, boots soaked, in front of a small, tear-streaked home that had once been full of life. His eyes were red from hours of crying with families who had lost everything-their homes, their memories, their futures. There were по cameras or press crews. This was a raw, personal mission.
Despite there being "no cameras or press crews" the story was illustrated with a photo showing Plant sitting next to a boat labeled "TEXAS FLOOD RELIEF":
(Image source: screenshot of scoreus.livextop.com)
However AI detection tool Hive said it was 99.9 percent likely the image was generated using AI.
(Source: screenshot of Hive results)
AI-text detection tool ZeroGPT said it was 57.33% likely the text of the article itself contained slabs of text written by AI:
(Source: screenshot of ZeroGPT results)
Content on the site that published the story frequently swaps out letters from the Roman alphabet for Cyrillic or Greek letters that visually look roughly identical, a technique frequently used to obfuscate plagiarism or evade moderation. In the past it has published several false stories about other celebrities supposedly donating money to aid Texas flood victings, for example here, here, here, here and here.
A Google News search for stories mentioning "Robert Plant", "Texas", "flood" and "donation" returned no results at the time of writing (archived here).
