AI-Generated Video Showing Aquarium Collapse in California Viral as Real

AI detection tool 'Was It AI' noted that a significant part of the clip was made using AI.

Fact-Check: This video is not real and has been made using AI.

(Source: The Quint) 

A video showing a huge aquarium collapsing and wiping away several people has gone viral on social media, as one from California, United States of America (USA).

Those sharing the video also claimed that this incident killed fifty people.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: Threads/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false as this video has been created using artificial intelligence (AI).

• We found no news reports or official press releases about the alleged aquarium collapse in California.

What we found: At first, we ran a relevant keyword search to find whether such an incident had occurred in California, however did not find any official reports to prove the claim.

• We, then, divided the video into multiple screenshots and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

• It led us to the same video uploaded by an Instagram page named 'viral_reels_aus' on 4 August.

Here is the preview of the post. 

(Source: Instagram) 

• We went through the user's profile and found that it was listed as a 'reel creator.' The user's profile included similar videos showing floods, cloudbursts, crashes.

Here is preview of the user's profile. 

(Source: Instagram) 

Discrepancies in the video: We slowed the video and watched it carefully.

• We noticed that the speed at which the people ran to save themselves from the glass shards looked unnatural.

• Team WebQoof also noted that clip only showing water gushing out of the aquarium. We did not see any of the fishes or even the glass shards after the alleged collapse.

• Additionally, we also noticed that a woman's body disfigured after the alleged collapse in the video.

Here is a preview of the woman's body which became disfigured. 

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

Team WebQoof, then, reached out to the Deepfake Analysis Unit (DAU) which revealed that the video was likely AI.

• A detection tool named Was It AI noted that a significant part of the video was created using AI.

Here is the preview of the results by Was It AI. 

(Source: Was It AI/Screenshot) 

Conclusion: Based on these discrepancies, Team WebQoof can conclude that the viral video is created using AI and is not real.

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