Lead Stories

Made-Up Messi Is a video that shows a fan running onto a soccer field to hug Lionel Messi at the 2026 FIFA World Cup authentic? No, that's not true: An AI detection tool determined that the video was 51.7% "likely to be AI-generated." There are multiple glitches in the video that show it was made with AI. There are no credible news reports of a woman running on the field to give Argentina's star player Messi a hug at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Prebunk Have you seen viral clips showing people dying from "overfloating" the edge of infinity pools or from falling down from the top of the building after a collapse of the pool's transparent walls? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and has found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence.

Altered Video Did Norwegian soccer player Erling Haaland scare himself when he saw his reflection in a mirror as he was eating at a restaurant? No, that's not true: The video was digitally edited with a face swap program. The original video does not show Haaland but Chinese comic Jin Long performing a skit in his signature physical comedy style. The video was published on Long's TikTok account on June 15, 2026.

Older Video Does a video show how multiple laser beams scanned the ground in the instant before the Venezuela earthquake struck? No, that's not true: One clip in the video was published on TikTok on March 18, 2026, months before earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24, 2026. The video had already circulated widely with a caption calling it a "converging beam event" before it was recaptioned to associate it with the earthquakes.

Faux Flags Is this a real photo showing Pride rainbow flags on the pitch ahead of the Iran-Egypt World Cup game in Seattle on June 26, 2026? No, that's not true: The image is AI-generated, an online detection tool identified it as such by detecting a SynthID watermark. There are no credible reports that Pride flags appeared on the field before the match. The claim appeared in a post and image (archived here) by the @zachleft account on X on June 27, 2026.

AI Slop Are social media posts claiming that Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama, or other celebrity women wore "probably the smallest bikini In the world" real? No, that's not true: The images used in the posts were created with artificial intelligence tools and distributed on a network of fake Facebook fan pages managed from North Macedonia. These clickbait posts link to blogs filled with ads, not facts.

No Such Post Did Donald Trump post an image of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool showing him and Jeffrey Epstein together? No, that's not true: Lead Stories manually reviewed his account on Truth Social for the period between June 1 and June 26, 2026, and found no evidence to support the claim. While images of the pool have been a recurring topic among the presindent's posts, none of those pictures featuring the site showed Epstein.

AI Made It Does a real photo from 1903 show a "Bengali woman carrying a British trader" depicting "the height of British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent"? No, that's not true: The image is fake. OpenAI's verification tool detected the image has a SynthID watermark and was made with tools from OpenAI. There are also glitches characteristic of AI-generated images such as the malformed hands.

Someone Else Does a photo show a police officer who reportedly shot a rabbi during a shooting in Montreal in late June 2026? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the woman in the image is a member of the Montreal police; she is Dasha Nekrasova, an American actress, filmmaker, and podcast co-host. Additionally, the shooting victim was not a rabbi but a member of a local Jewish congregation.

Prebunk Have you seen viral videos showing people making Indian street food using feet? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such clips recently and has found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence.