Does a real video show declassified 1966 UFO footage of an octopus-like creature with 10 tentacles bouncing on the sea and flying off at great speed? No, that's not true: There is no credible evidence of such a historic sighting, and no reputable outlets have reported it. An AI detection tool also assessed the clip and concluded that "the video is likely AI-generated," further supporting that it is not authentic.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) by the @fabianstelzer account on X on May 9, 2026. It said:
Crazy declassified 1966 footage of an Unidentified Friendly Opus (UFO)
This is what a screenshot of the video in the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @fabianstelzer on X.)
Fabian Stelzer is a tech entrepreneur and co-founder of GLIF, a platform that "orchestrates hundreds of AI tools to create entire short-form videos, product shoots, and full ad campaigns in minutes," according to the GLIF website (archived here), which is linked in his profile (archived here). A screenshot of the full, original post labels it as: "Made with AI." It is circled in red below:
(Image source: post by @fabianstelzer on X.)
The video is embedded below:
Crazy declassified 1966 footage of an Unidentified Friendly Opus (UFO) pic.twitter.com/NsJVIY4Bkx
-- fabian (@fabianstelzer) May 9, 2026
The video has circulated widely on social media -- mostly without the AI label -- but Stelzer's clip is the earliest version Lead Stories found. It was posted a day after the Department of Defense (archived here) -- whose website was rebranded as war.gov under Secretary Pete Hegseth -- began releasing UFO files (archived here) on May 8, 2026.
AI detection
The Hive Moderation AI-Generated Content Detection tool concluded the video was 100% 'likely to be AI-generated':
(Image source: Hive Moderation.)
Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo! News (archived here) and did not find any matching reports for the words: "declassified 1966 footage of UFO octopus." While there were many stories about the government's release of the UFO files, there were none about this particular video.
The post and video also appear to be mocking Claude AI -- a competitor of GLIF -- by captioning the video: "Crazy declassified 1966 footage of an Unidentified Friendly Opus (UFO)." As of May 2026, Opus 4.7 was Claude's most advanced model, but Stelzer's account was suggesting it was something antiquated from the 1960s. Another video (archived here) shows the Claude logo, similar in shape to the octopus-like creature in the first video, as a rusting hulk being transported by ship and railcar.
The clip is embedded below:
the real reason why SF is 6 months ahead on AI is just physics:
-- fabian (@fabianstelzer) May 11, 2026
shipping a SOTA model from the bay area to NYC is a logistical nightmare
imagine what it took to bring Opus 4.7 to Europe (we don't have trains here) 😢 https://t.co/ajpR3ie7yt pic.twitter.com/DPiELQJGe7
