Investigating AI Manipulation in Viral Chinese Paraglider Video

Right now, you might have read the news that a Chinese paraglider pilot, Peng Yujiang, got sucked into a cloud and ended up at 8,598 meters / 28,000 feet. It's literally on every news website: CNN, BBC, The Guardian. Now, what makes this story really interesting is the accompanying video. Here is one version from The Guardian, which had 300k views in 17 hours: I've been paragliding for 18 years and follow the progress of AI very closely, but even I couldn't say with 100% certainty if this video is real or fake. One scene is definitely fake: the one where the camera makes a move that would only be possible from a drone. In this scene, the otherwise black helmet is white, and the perspective falls apart in a strange, distorted way, typical of lower-quality AI-generated videos. Also, here, he is using a sitting harness (legs visible) whereas in the real ones, he is in a pod-style harness. A screenshot from the fake scene: I think the other two scenes might be real though, recorded w ... Read full article.