Technology

Is there evidence Jared Kushner, a businessman, U.S. special envoy for peace and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, was one of the people who recently bought .si domain names? No, that's not true: there is no evidence that Kushner recently acquired any .si domain names, which use Slovenia's country-code top-level domain. Affinity Partners, Kushner's investment firm, told Lead Stories that "Jared…

Did President Donald Trump's Truth Social account post a 503 "Service Unavailable" error referencing Yandex? No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of the post, and no established news outlets reported that his account shared the error message at the time of publication. The fake post appeared to have originated from a political…

Did "South Park" tease an episode featuring Susan Dell and did she rage in response? No, that's not true: The image of Dell appearing with the characters from the TV show is AI-generated and was made by a digital creator. Neither the show nor Dell had posted any messages about such an episode at the time of writing. The claim…

Did President Donald Trump write "every Republican vote counts as 3 votes" because of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk? No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of such a post, although one post contained a similarly worded message without the "3 votes" language. At the time of writing, no established news outlets…

Do two videos that show two different planes prove that the attempted hijacking of the FlyDubai flight Sept. 30, 2026, was a staged "false flag"? No, that's not true: The clip showing a celebration on a plane is of the Israeli men's basketball team from 2025, as Lead Stories previously reported. Nothing in the video proves that the FlyDubai flight…

Did Donald Trump admit in a speech, "I've done a shitty job as president"? No, that's not true: The president did say those words, but he was joking, and the quote was taken out of context. While announcing a new AI-powered government information hub, Trump was joking by saying "If it is the biggest thing I've ever done, I've done…

Does a real photo show President Donald Trump, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and others toasting at a black-tie event? No, that's not true: The image is AI-generated, according to analysis from online detection tools. Searches of the image did not generate credible results. The claim appeared in a…

Is a photo of President Trump, President of China Xi Jinping, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos at the head table at the White House state dinner on Sept. 24, 2026, real? No, that's not true: The image is clearly labeled AI-generated. The head table did not include Bezos, and the outfits worn by the first ladies and the table settings…

Have you seen viral videos showing runaway medical robots? 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 or situations but are part of a viral trend showing technology out of control. This article is part of a series of stories examining…

Does a viral image authentically show the folding iPhone Duo released in September 2026 after three months of use? No, that's not true: Two online AI detectors found evidence of generative AI. Earlier versions of the image shared on social media did not document such pronounced damage from folding. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X…

Did the BBC actually publish a news article reporting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture listed the fictional nation Wakanda as a free-trade partner? Yes, but it is not recent: The incident occurred in 2019, which is when the BBC article was released. Additionally, the Wakanda mistake was due to a testing error, not to a genuine belief by the…

Have you seen viral videos of what look like female robots marketed on social media as girlfriends for human men? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They appear to be engagement bait aimed at exploiting sexual desires in certain audiences. This article is part of…

Does a real video show a cyclist powering a Mercedes on the Autobahn at highway speeds? No, that's not true: The Hive Moderation content detection tool rated the video with a 99.7% likelihood of being AI-generated. Lead Stories found several AI glitches after a visual inspection of this clip. The video appeared in a post (archived here) published by the…

Did X owner Elon Musk say that he was "trying to do the greatest amount of good with the limited time I have on Earth"? No, that's not true: His account on the social media platform didn't show such a quote. Lead Stories didn't find any credible sources confirming that those were his actual words. The claim appeared in a…

Does a real video show a nurse, flight attendant, police officer, cheerleader or Walmart associate dancing to "The Git Up" song? No, that's not true: A series of AI-generated videos shows characters dancing to the 2019 country hit by Blanco Brown with identical choreography. Each of these dancing videos originates from an Instagram account featuring additional sexualized AI-generated images and…

While investigating a video for a recent fact-check, Lead Stories encountered a bizarre issue with the SynthID AI detector in Google's Gemini chatbot. Over several chats it appeared to contradict an earlier detection result for the same video file. Initially, the chatbot claimed the video file had a SynthID watermark in it, indicating the video was made or edited with…

Did an article about the $4 billion Firebird datacenter in Armenia being at risk because of unreliable power supply actually appear on Gizmodo? No, that's not true: The newsroom predominantly covering tech did not publish that story. The article in question appeared on a fake website that was only registerd days ago and which linked to the real Gizmodo website…

Have you seen viral videos showing timelapse construction of secret bunkers, underground rooms or hidden lairs out of wild materials and objects that would give the builders a safe place to hide to survive a catastrophic event? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and has found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They…

Did Jeff Bezos say water should be used to fuel AI rather than for human consumption in public remarks at the 2026 VivaTech conference in Paris? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no evidence that Bezos made that statement at the conference. A search of the transcript of the 49-minute session found neither the quote attributed to Bezos, nor…

Is Britain banning VPNs next month? No, that's not true: The prime minister of the United Kingdom announced a proposed ban on major social media platforms for children under 16. Keir Starmer made the announcement at a public press conference and did not say the ban included VPNs. One politician said the legislation might regulate VPN use by age, but…