A video and photos showing a child hugging a puppy while stranded on a rooftop after several houses were submerged in floodwaters have gone viral online. These are fake and were likely generated using artificial intelligence.
Published by an FB user as early as Nov. 7, when Typhoon Tino (Kalmaegi) exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility, the video had a caption that read: “[Kawawa] naman” (Pitiful.)
Another FB user and a YouTube channel reposted the video mentioning Typhoon Tino (Fung-wong) in their captions.
From Nov. 8 to 9, during the onslaught of the typhoon, more FB pages uploaded screenshots from the viral video, along with emotionally appealing captions, leading netizens to react with sad, care and love emojis.
But the Nov. 7 clip had a 99.5% likelihood of AI-generated content, according to the results of the AI detection tool Hive Moderation.
Hive suggested that OpenAI’s latest video generation model, Sora 2, was likely used to create the clip, particularly the close-up scene of the child and puppy’s faces, as well as the zoomed-out shot showing the boy from afar and the flooded community in the background.
VERA Files Fact Check also ran two screenshots circulated by some FB pages on another AI detection tool, WasItAI, and found that only one was created by AI.
Two red flags indicating AI use can also be spotted in the clip, as shown below.
The viral AI-generated video and images started circulating a day after Typhoon Tino exited PAR and as Typhoon Uwan devastated parts of the Philippines.
VERA Files has previously debunked other disaster-related AI-generated photos and videos usually after natural calamities hit the country.
Uploaded by several FB users and pages, including Note. (created on Dec. 2, 2019), posts bearing the fake video and pictures have collectively received over 870,000 reactions, 15,889 comments, 62,700 shares and 4.8 million views. Two copies published on YouTube and Instagram have also garnered significant traction.
