A number of videos showing overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East sobbing and expressing their desire to go back to the Philippines amid the Iran war are circulating across social media platforms. This series of clips are made using artificial intelligence.
VERA Files Fact Check has flagged five such fake clips so far published since March 1, each showing the following:
- a woman in Bahrain crying at a rooftop;
- a woman in Saudi Arabia sobbing while walking along a street;
- a woman in the United Arab Emirates running away from an explosion;
- a man in Abu Dhabi with mascara streaks from crying, walking on a sidewalk; and
- a crying man in Riyadh inside a building.
Three originated from a Filipino Facebook page that publishes content made with AI, which is clearly disclosed on its account. However, several accounts across FB, Instagram and YouTube have recirculated the clips without that disclaimer, making it appear authentic.
The two other clips appear to have originated from a private individual on FB, who has since deleted his videos.
All five videos bear signs of being generated using AI, which we dissect in detail below.
Visual inconsistencies all over
A common limitation of AI content generators is their propensity to create sloppy videos, which may show incorrect body parts, unnatural movement and even made-up words in street signs. Below are some of the visual red flags in the circulating fake videos:
- An unnatural glitching, blurring effect around the face of each OFW speaking;
- Unmoving eyebrows and facial lines, despite the OFWs being emotional;
- In “Abu Dhabi” OFW’s video: A green highway sign bearing the destination “Adaby Zrabi”, which is not a real place; and
- In “Saudi” OFW’s video: Cars zooming out of the frame but do not appear to follow a natural traffic path, only coming out behind the OFW’s head.
It appears that the blurring was done to hide watermarks from AI tools that were used to create the videos.
In the case of the “Abu Dhabi” OFW, there was a frame that failed to be scrubbed and actually showed the watermark for Sora, an OpenAI tool which converts text and images into videos.
Same script
Similar prompts also appear to have been given to the AI tools used to make the clips.
Three of the videos show the OFWs saying these lines word for word, only changing the location mentioned:
“Ang lalakas ng dagundong dito sa [Riyadh/Abu Dhabi/Saudi]. Gusto ko na pong umuwi
(The rumbling here in [Riyadh/Abu Dhabi/Saudi Arabia] is so loud. I want to go home).”
Talk of “dagundong” (rumbling) was also mentioned in the caption of the “Bahrain”-based OFW’s video.
“Ang hirap panoorin nito. Isang OFW umiiyak sa rooftop habang may mga dagundong sa paligid (This is hard to watch. An OFW crying on a rooftop while rumbling sounds can be heard in the background).”
Lastly, even results from Hive Moderation, which detects AI-generated content, indicated there to be a “likely” chance that the videos were made using AI.
These AI-generated videos surfaced a day after Israel and the United States launched a military operation against Iran on Feb. 28, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran retaliated by aiming ballistic missiles and drones against Tel Aviv and some U.S. bases in the Middle East. The ongoing war has endangered civilian lives, including those of about 2.5 million OFWs in the Middle East.
The three videos sourced from the FB page Sobra Na To – which publishes exclusively AI-generated content – has been republished by two Instagram accounts, an FB user and the YouTube channel Vitalez TV. These have gotten over 134 reactions and nearly 3,000 views. The two other videos, published by Vitalez TV and FB page Momshie Ann Vlog (created on Feb. 7), have gotten over 700 views collectively.
