Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
Crane used to rescue an elephant stuck on a steep cliff.
Fact
Viral video found to be AI-generated.
A 29-second video, purportedly showing the dramatic rescue of an elephant stranded on the edge of a narrow cliff using a metallic crane, has gone viral across all social media platforms with users expressing amazement on how the animal ended up in such a situation and concern for its safety, while others have shared it in a satirical context.
“Where did the elephant go after getting angry with #HaryanaElectionResult?” read one such X post in Hindi. Another user, who shared the video wondering how the pachyderm ended up in such a situation, has clocked 222K views at the time of publishing this article.
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
Fact Check
Newschecker noticed the blurred faces of the people in the crowd, the inconsistency in the size of the elephant tusks through the course of the video, while also noting that at one point (00:08) the elephant appears to have two tails, pointing towards the video being likely AI-generated.
We noticed that the video shared by one of the users had a watermark “AThingInside”, with the caption reading, “US police rescued an elephant stuck in a rocky mountain”, following which we ran a relevant keyword search.
Newschecker did not find any credible news reports about such a rescue, however, we came across the same video on Youtube, uploaded by @athinginside on October 2, 2024.
According to the description, the video comprised altered or synthetic content with ”sound or visuals significantly edited or digitally generated.”
“I will turn dry videos into new funny videos,” read the description of the channel, which also features several AI-based videos of animals in unrealistic and dramatic situations.
We also ran the video past Hive Moderation, an AI content detection tool, which stated that the video is “97.4% likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content”, further proving that the video was digitally altered.
Also Read: Scripted Video Of Child Hitting Mother With Cricket Bat Shared As Real
Conclusion
AI-manipulated video showing a dramatic rescue of an elephant stuck on a steep cliff has gone viral.
Result: Altered Media
Sources
Youtube video, @athinginside, October 2, 2024
Hive Moderation tool
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
