Viral Video Of Monkeys Frightened By Diwali Firecrackers Is AI Slop
BOOM found visual inconsistencies indicating it was created using AI
An AI-generated video appearing to show three monkeys startled by fireworks is being shared on social media as footage of a real incident during Diwali.
BOOM found the original video with an AI label; two AI-detection tools also flagged the footage as likely AI-generated.
The Claim:
The video is being shared on social media to show the distress caused by fireworks to animals during Diwali.
Archive available here.
What We Found:
1) Original Video with AI Label: A reverse image search traced the video to a Facebook post from the handle @Love.nature.48 dated November 1, 2026 with a label indicating it was created using AI.
2) Results from AI detection tools: The video shows several visual inconsistencies - at the 2-second mark, the monkeys appear to jump simultaneously, seemingly out of fear, in a synchronised and unnatural manner. We also ran the video through Undetectable AI and Hive Moderation's AI detection tools, which flagged it as AI-generated.
3) SynthID watermark detected: We then ran the video through SynthID detector, which found embedded markers confirming that the video was made or edited using OpenAI.
