A few compilations of AI-generated videos showing firefighters rescuing wild animals is viral on social media as real footage from the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles, in United State's California.
BOOM and its partners at Deepfakes Analysis Unit analysed the videos, and found strong evidence of them being generated using artificial intelligence.
Los Angeles has been engulfed in wildfires of an unprecedented scale over the past 10 days fueled by strong winds, killing at least 24 people, and causing financial losses to the tune of US$250-275 billion.
One of the captions shared with the viral video read, "Heartwarming Rescue: Heroes Save Wildlife from California Wildfire. Witness the incredible bravery of firefighters as they risk their lives to rescue animals trapped in the devastating California wildfires. From deer to tiny birds, these heroes are working tirelessly to protect wildlife and preserve what’s left of this fragile ecosystem. Let’s stand together for our planet and its creatures."
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We also found another compilation containing similar videos of firefighters with animals, shared on X.
Videos Are Entirely AI-Generated
BOOM took several keyframes from the video, and performed reverse image searches, but were unable to find any authentic news reports reporting such footage as real.
Furthermore, upon viewing the footage closely, we found multiple evidence of unusual and unnatural visuals, that indicated a likelihood of AI being used to create them. One such visual showed a man sitting with an owl, with smoke coming out of their bodies.
Another footage showed a man carrying two bears in his arms, with the limbs of one of the bears missing. Yet another footage of a man sitting with a deer showed the man having unnatural fingers.
For further confirmation, we ran the two videos by our partners at the Deepfakes Analysis Unit, who provided us with further evidence to establish these videos as synthetic.
DAU broke the videos into keyframes, and ran them through AI image detector "Was it AI", which indicated most of the keyframes as likely being AI-generated, while some of the keyframes were highlighted as being real.
Doing a manual analysis, DAU further added observations like changing fingers of the firefighters, distended limbs of animals at unnatural angles, unnatural fire and unnatural walking manner of the firefighters. In one of the shots (as seen below), an extra finger seems to unnaturally appear on the hands of one firefighter.
All of these evidence provide a strong indication that these clips have been made using artificial intelligence, and does not show real situations of animals being rescued by firefighters during the ongoing wildfires in greater Los Angeles.
