As Category 5 Hurricane Melissa bears down on Jamaica with winds topping 180 mph, social media is being hit by a surge of AI-generated and misleading videos, showing catastrophic flooding, collapsing buildings and rescue scenes that never happened.
Across X, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp and other social media platforms, fake clips spread quickly, racking up millions of views in hours. Many of these videos are spliced footage from past storms or clips created entirely with text-to-video AI tools.
CNET
In times of crisis, like a dangerous and imminent natural disaster, these fake videos can create confusion, panic and distraction at a time when accuracy can be life-saving.
Natural disasters have always bred rumors and recycled footage, but the rise of AI-generated video has supercharged the problem. Tools like OpenAI's Sora and other AI-video platforms can render realistic-looking images of storms, floods and damage scenes in seconds, reaching millions online in just a few hours.
Read more: The Deepfakes Are Winning. How Can You Tell if a Video Is Real or Sora AI?
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Why storms are a magnet for fake news
Storms are visual, emotional and fast-moving, which is the perfect recipe for viral misinformation. In years past, videos were often taken out of context or labeled as a different storm. Now, they can be digitally fabricated from scratch.
Some depict apocalyptic flooding that hasn't occurred, while others claim to show "real-time" conditions hours before landfall. Several videos that have circled this week include images of sharks swimming in the storm surge and unsettling depictions of human suffering.
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