AI-Generated Clip Showing Monkey Firing an Indian Soldier’s Rifle Viral as Real

Hive Moderation concluded that the video was created using artificial intelligence (AI) and was not real.

Fact-Check: This video is AI-generated and not real, as claimed.

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

A video allegedly showing a monkey attempting to attack an Indian soldier, sleeping in his chair, is being shared on social media.

• In the clip, the monkey also fires the soldier's rifle placed closed to his chair.

• Some of these posts also questioned the Indian army's strength.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot) 

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

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false as this video is AI-generated.

What we found: At first, we ran a relevant keyword search to check if such an incident had taken place, recently. However, we did not find any credible evidence or news reports to prove the validity of the viral clip.

Anomalies in the video: Team WebQoof spotted a few anomalies, which are often prevalent in AI-generated videos.

• At first, the swift movement with which the soldier ran after he was startled by the alleged gun shot. Secondly, the missing leg of the chair is shown in the image.

• Additionally, the speed and swiftness with which the monkey picked the gun is also a possible red flag.

Here is teh close-up for the irregularities.

(Source: Altered by The Quint) 

• We, then, ran this video on AI-detection platform Hive Moderation and found that the viral clip was 99.8 per cent contained AI-generated content.

Here are the results by Hive Moderation.

(Source: Hive Moderation) 

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

• We found a better-quality video uploaded on a YouTube page named "IsqStories" from 15 November.

• This channel contained similar clips showing monkeys firing security personnel's rifles.

Here is a preview of the channel's uploads.

(Source: YouTube/Screenshot)

Conclusion: An AI-generated clip showing a monkey attack an Indian soldier is being shared on social media.

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