There are so many fakes spreading online these days that it can be hard to keep track.
Here at Gizmodo, weve been fact-checking fake images that go viral for well over a decade now.
But that doesnt mean everything in 2024 was AI-generated.
© Gizmodo
In fact, the images that actually tricked people in 2024 were often more traditional photoshop-style fakes.
AI is abundant, but people have also developed an eye for when AI has been used.
Theres an eerie vibe emanating from AI-generated images.
AI-generated image of a man in the 1980s smoking at McDonald’s. Image: Twitter
And old-school Photoshop can still create images that dont give the same red flags.
It went viral in 2024 on sites likeReddit,Instagram, andX.
Hopelessly, tragically fake.
The robot was being used that day during apartial building collapseof a parking garage in Lower Manhattan.
But that may simply be explained by the fact that these four-legged robots arent very common yet.
Oh, the perils of living in the future.
Photographic evidence isnt worth very much these days.
But a funny altered image is still a funny altered image, no matterwhat era you live in.
But the signs werent put there by any government entity.
One of the photos even received a Community Note submitted by users that claimed as much.
But thats not true.
Theyre photos of a real sign in the sense that they werent created using programs like ChatGPT or Photoshop.
Whats the idea behind the sign?
The threshold in California is $950, which some people think is too high.
That includes Republican-run states like Texas ($2,500) and South Carolina ($2,000).
AI-generated image of a man in the 1980s smoking at McDonald’s. Image: Twitter
Needless to say, nobody is claiming that Texas and South Carolina have legalized theft.
Professional-looking signs clearly made by pranksters have been popping up in San Francisco for years.
But we know thats not a real sign put out by the city.
You have to drive the freeways in L.A. to experience that.
The beauty of the oceans, another X user wrote in a tweet that was seen over12 million times.
Why is this video so dumb?
The closest major ocean is the Atlantic and its nowhere near the Pacific.
Simply put, the North Sea and the Pacific Ocean never meet.
These videos can be particularly deceiving when a wide river meets the ocean.
And that idea seems particularly common among people who want to insist science doesnt understand why oceans dont mix.
This is the Gulf of Alaska where 2 oceans meet but do not mix.
What an absolutely AMAZING God….. one viral post from Facebookclaimed.
Well, actually we do understand.
Because the oceans do mix.
Even if incredibly dense people on social media tell you otherwise.
And one user even claimed Lindell was hammered while driving.
But the video is significantly altered.
But the video, which is originally from 2023, started to beshared without context.
And some people thought it was real.
I made it look like the cars moving and its 100x better, McLaren tweetedlast year.
But the video started making the rounds again, without making it dump the video had been manipulated.
My dude is HAMMERED, an X account called Universe Lover wroteon Friday.
The viral internet is only going to get more confusing with AI advancements just over the horizon.
The image went viral, racking up tens of millions of views in 2024.
But its completely fake.
The image was made using generative AI.
For starters, just take a look at the fingers and hands.
Do you notice how unusually long the mans left hand is, without any discernible wrist?
It appears like his arm just morphs into fingers that are incredibly long.
Next, just take a look at the writing in the image.
It also looks like a straw is sticking out from the container.
Ive never tried to consume fries through a straw, but one imagines thats a difficult task.
And what is the writing in the upper-right corner supposed to say?
Fake AI image (left) and a real photo showing a crowd of people at the Cinderella Castle in Walt Disney World. Real photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images
Last but not least, check out the main subjects shirt situation.
The man comes off as bare-chested while wearing a denim vest but the sleeves look like a white t-shirt.
It doesnt make much sense.
Image: Twitter
If you saw this image in your feeds and didnt immediately register it as AI, youre not alone.
We regularly debunk images and didnt even give it a second thought when we first saw it.
Who cares if the Pope wears a cool jacket?
But we regret to inform you this Croissantosaurus was made usinggenerative AI.
Babe, whats wrong?
You havent eaten your Croissantosaurus… a viral tweetjokedon X.
The tweet racked up millions of views.
And if you notice something weird about the restaurant, youre not alone.
Unleash your inner paleontologist and savor our new Dino Croissants.
Choose your favorite dinosaur and pair it with a delightful cappuccino.
A prehistoric treat for a modern indulgence!
For starters, all the staff at the restaurant appear to be AI-generated.
Do you spot anything strange about this bartender, aside from the fact that hes named Tommy Kollins?
Thats right, he comes off as gripping that drink with a hand that has six fingers.
AI image generators likeDALL-E, Midjourney,and Stable Diffusion often have trouble generating hands accurately.
And while many improvements have been made since they were first introduced, hands can still be tricky.
Reservations go live at 4:30 am every first Monday of every month.
This approach maximizes your opportunity to secure your desired reservation promptly and efficiently, the website reads.
Gizmodo tried to ping the Ethos Cafe through the form on its website but didnt hear back.
Just know that the Croissantosaurus is adorable but totally fake.
But no matter if you think a remake is a good idea, the movie isnt happening.
At least not in the foreseeable future.
Get ready to embark on a prehistoric escapade like never before!
Brace yourself for a January 2025 release a dino-mite adventure awaits!
The last in the series was released in 2016 and is titledJourney of the Brave.
If people have strong feelings about the film series, that certainly counts for something.
Get to work, movie execs.
But the tweet isnt real.
It was made by a comedian.
But Owens departed the connection, according to a social media post by Daily Wire CEOJeremy Boreing.
The answer, of course, is that they didnt actually tweet them in the first place.
The tweet was actually created by an X user who goes by the nameTrap Queen Enthusiast.
The fake tweet from Owens racked up over900,000 viewsin a short amount of time.
The new film claimed to document corruption at the Olympic Games in Paris, France.
The film comes in four 9-minute episodes, each starting with Netflixs signature ta-dum sound effect and red-N animation.
But there are plenty of signs that this movie is bullshit to anyone paying attention.
For starters, Cruises voice is realistic but sometimes has a stilted delivery.
InJerry Maguire, my character writes a 25-page-long firm mission statement about dishonesty in the sports management business.
Jerry wanted justice for athletes, which makes him extremely relatable, the narration says.
Its hard to imagine a line like that making it into an authentic documentary.
The entire film is available on the messaging app Telegram, where Gizmodo watched it.
Thats simply not true.
Microsoft assesses this graffiti was digitally generated and unlikely to exist at a physical location.
That said, some of the information in the pseudo-documentary is actually true.
Other claims about Olympic officials are also true, according to the news sources available online.
But thats to be expected.
The most successful propaganda mixes fact and fiction to make people unsure about what the truth might be.
All we know for certain is that Tom Cruise never narrated this movie.
Brian Metzger from Business Insidercaptured a screenshotof Lees tweet before he deleted it.
At her passing last November President Carter said, Rosalynn was a baddie.
Jill, Melania, even throat goat Nancy Reagan had nothing on Rosalynn.
She was the original Brat.
She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it.
As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.
They were married for 77 years.
Its also very unlikely that Carters death announcement would make reference to Charli XCXs Brat.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) appears to have been duped by a fake letter announcing Jimmy Carters death.
He was 99 years old.
But anyone who actually read the letter should have been able to figure it out.
This was an experiment to see how gullible people are to sensationalist headlines.
BREAKING Former President Jimmy Carter has passed away.
But photos of the theme park flooded in water started to pop up, despite being completely fake.
Russian state media, TikTok, and X all helped them spread.
Russian state media outlet RIA made a post onTelegramwith three images that appeared to show Disney World submerged.
How did we know these images are fake?
For starters, the buildings arent right at all.
But you dont even need to know what the real Cinderellas Caste looks like to know its fake.
Just zoom in on the turrets of the building itself.
And its impossible to overstate just how awful that platform has become.
Nawfals tweet helped spread the fake Disney photos even further on X before he finally deleted them.
Incredibly, they believe that Donald Trump is going to save those kids.
Yes, that Donald Trump.
Like the one below showing Pluto in a life-jacket carrying a child through floodwaters.
The sun is starting to rise in Florida.
Look at Mickeys arms, one particularly bizarre tweet with an image of a Mickey Mouse clockreads.
Could they be showing a date?
The day the storm hit Disney World.
There are no coincidences.
The Military are clearing out the tunnels underneath.
Used for human trafficking of children and other horrible crimes.
Look at Mickeys arms.
Could they be showing a date?
The day the storm hit Disney World.
There are no coincidences.
The Military are clearing out the tunnels underneath.
Used for human trafficking of children and other horrible crimes.
Our hearts are with our fellow Floridians who were impacted by this storm, thewebsite reads.
Its a ridiculous environment for disinformation right now.
And that will likely continue to be our reality for the foreseeable future.
What do we mean by ridiculous lies?
But anyone actually from Minnesota would immediately notice some big red flags.
But the person mispronounces the word Mankato and somehow even the word Minnesota sounds weird.
If this is true, she’s done.
The Kamala Harris/ Tim Walz combo is done.
It’s over.#KamalaDumpsterFirepic.twitter.com/n6cgr70VrG
MatthewLovesUSA (@MatthewLovesUSA)October 17, 2024
Why was this going viral?
I dont know where theyre getting this from.
But Wired also believes the video was created AI, something that not all experts are agreed on.
All we know for certain is that the video is clearly fake and was being spread inorganically on X.
13) Hollywood Mountain?
A stunning photo of Hollywood Mountain, California went viral in 2024?
But its completely fake.
Theres not even a real place called Hollywood Mountain.
Lund pointed out that something very similar happened in the early 2010s when Chinese tourists visited Paris, France.
Generative AI can turn any imaginary place into a passable reality with just a few simple text prompts.
And if you visit the real city of Hollywood as an outsider, prepare to temper your expectations.
It doesnt look anything like the completely fictitious Hollywood Mountain.
But its not real.
The photo might look oddly realistic, but its been altered significantly.
Where is the image actually from?
You never know who youre gonna meet at a#Trumprally.
Lindell also has a more normal smile as opposed to the bizarre gaze from the altered image.
Eagle-eyed viewers may have also noticed something else odd about the photoshopped image.
But this fake featuring Lindell was a great reminder that old-fashioned photoshopping is still around.
You dont need fancy AI to make a convincing (if admittedly perplexing) fake image.
The video went viral on YouTube, getting attention on sites likeHacker News.
But its completely fake.
It opened with the words The Truth and If you see this, Im already under arrest.
It ended with the words All is scheduled, be patient.
If youre curious what the video actually looked like, you cancheck it out here.
YouTube confirmed to Gizmodo that it wasnt real.
Additionally, we terminated 3 other channels owned by the suspect, per our Creator Responsibility Guidelines.
The spokesperson also noted that these accounts had been dormant for months.
Who is actually behind the video?
News from the future, delivered to your present.
Two banks say Amazon has paused negotiations on some international data centers.
