Technology

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…

Did U.K.'s Prime Minister Keir Starmer publicly threaten to arrest X owner Elon Musk along with other "336 million Americans"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories reviewed Starmer's public comments about Musk and did not find anything remotely close to what social media attributed to the prime minister. The claim about hundreds of millions to be arrested is implausible on…

Does a real video show the take-off of a "white mega plane" with several decks between the cockpit and the main cabin? No, that's not true: The clip was created using artificial intelligence and an AI detection tool determined that the video was 99.6% "likely to be AI-generated." In addition, an aircraft designed like a skyscraper with wings would not…

Is the color footage showing a 1923 demonstration of one-wheeled roller skates or cycle-skates real? Yes, that's true: The movie footage from 1923 is real, but it has been colorized. This design of the skates by a French inventor was promoted with some races in 1923. Black and white archive footage of a skating demonstration and one of the races…

Does a viral image confirm that now X has "sovereign settings" that allow users to opt out of the social media platform's rules, including moderation? No, that's not true: A search across X's Terms of Service page did not produce a match. Neither did X's Help Center or its revenue-sharing information. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published…

Did OpenAI announce plans to let users "securely connect" ChatGPT to their DNA to modify specific parts of their body? No, that's not true: This fake announcement came from a parody account. A disclaimer in its bio states: "These are fake stories." There is no announcement from OpenAI about technology such as this. The false announcement appeared in a post…

Does a real video show a Tesla Cybertruck carrying solar panels? No, that's not true: The clip is a digital creation, not authentic footage. Cybertrucks, like other electric vehicles, are not designed to be charged while in motion. An AI detection tool concluded that "the video is likely to be AI-generated" after analyzing its content. The claim appeared in a…

Is there a controversial game called Plantation Simulator available to buy on Steam, where players motivate Black workers by whipping them? Yes, that's true: Plantation Simulator was released on Steam on May 12, 2026. The developer describes the game's content this way: "In this game, you will be whipping black people to keep your farm productive, If you whip your…

Did Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter and chairman of Block, join the AI company Anthropic? No, that's not true: There have been no news announcements that Dorsey has joined Anthropic. After the true announcement that Andrej Karpathy, the co-founder of OpenAI, was joining Anthropic, a trend of copycat joke announcements popped up on social media. Among the copycat posts…

Did a data center cause a power outage at Six Flags Over Texas in May 2026? No, that's not true: A representative for Six Flags said a construction crew struck an underground power line, causing the outage. There's no evidence that any of the major regional data centers in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area had anything to do with the…

Did Donald Trump post a fake photo of himself walking with an alien? Yes, that's true: The president shared the photo of him walking next to an alien on his Truth Social account on May 17, 2026. An online detection tool rated the photo of the president with the alien as AI-generated. The claim appeared in a May 17, 2026,…

Was this viral image of a star-shaped UFO released by the Department of War in the UFO Files? No, that's not true: The UFO files released by the Trump administration do not include a color photo of a star-shaped UFO that appears to be hovering over water. The image was previously published on the internet on April 9, 2026, a…