Social media platforms have seen a surge in the sharing of alleged videos of UFOs (unidentified flying objects), particularly following a November 2024 U.S. congressional hearing.
In November 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP): Exposing the Truth.”
During the hearing, a former Department of Defense official testified to Congress that government employees had been injured by UFOs and accused the U.S. government of conducting a secret UFO retrieval program. However, he did not provide direct evidence to support his claims.
Although this hearing was similar to previous congressional UFO hearings, the pedigrees of some whistleblowers who testified set it apart. Witnesses included a former U.S. counterintelligence officer, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, and a former NASA associate administrator.
All of them stressed the need for more government transparency, less stigma around the UFO topic, and new policies to bring UAP data out of classified programs and into the public domain.
This congressional hearing energized already enthusiastic UFO communities, prompting many to create AI-generated videos about UFOs and encouraging thousands of people to share them. Misbar investigated some of the most viral claims, analyzing them and explaining how AI-generated content can be identified.
Purported UFO Crash in Arizona Revealed as AI-Generated
A video recently went viral on several social media platforms, claiming to show a large UFO that crashed in Arizona. The alleged UFO fuselage was said to be 8 meters wide and 3.5 meters high.
The video shows glitches that cast doubt on its authenticity, such as mismatched shadows of men inspecting the UFO.
In the first seconds of the video, two inspectors stood right next to each other, but the shadow cast on the UFO showed only the camera.
Another scene in the video demonstrated the manipulation of artificial intelligence. The shadow of the man standing on the right examining the alleged flying saucer did not appear to belong to him.
Furthermore, Misbar previously investigated the video and found that the original creator, whose watermark is visible in the footage, was a digital creator named "sybervisions."
The creator marked the video as AI-generated in the hashtags, along with “Sora,” an OpenAI video generation model designed to take text, image, and video inputs to generate a new video as output.
AI-Generated Video of a UFO Crash in France
Another video went viral on social media platforms, allegedly showing footage of a UFO crash in France.
Misbar analyzed the video and found several noticeable glitches suggesting it was created using AI tools.
At the beginning of the video, two men inspect the UFO. The man on the right appears to have no eyes.
Another scene shows a police officer in the background. The upper part of the officer’s body seems to be behind the fence, while the lower part appears to be in front of it.
One of the men inspecting the alleged UFO is wearing dark black pants, but in one shot, it looks like the leg of the man standing behind him, who is wearing blue jeans, overlaps his leg.
Finally, one of the men inspecting the UFO appears to hold a phone in his hand in one frame. In the next frame, the phone turns into a piece of paper.
All these glitches confirm the video was made using AI models. AI models often generate videos with glitches, as their algorithms prioritize visual coherence over physical laws.
AI Footage of Alleged UFO Captured From United Airlines Flight
A video recently emerged on social media platforms, claiming to show footage of a UFO captured from a United Airlines flight.
A reverse image search on the frames of the video led to a TikTok clip published by a user named “FiendCore.” The user labeled the video as AI-generated content.
A look at the user’s account reveals a track record of publishing AI-generated videos—most of FiendCore’s videos are labeled as AI-generated.
AI-Generated Video Claims UFOs Were Over Maryland
In December, a video showing three allegedly UFOs in the sky went viral on social media platforms. Users claimed that the video showed UFOs hovering over Maryland.
Some users shared shots of the video, linking it to the so-called “Project Blue Beam,” a conspiracy theory suggesting that governments or secret organizations plan to use advanced technology, like holograms, to create fake events or images in the sky to manipulate people.
Misbar traced the TikTok user "joeymalinski," whose username appeared on the viral video. Joey Malinski, a filmmaker, uploaded the video to his TikTok account, captioning it: "Near my house in Cockeysville, MD. Horrible name for a town, I know."
No label indicating the video was AI-generated could be found in the caption. However, a look at Malinski’s TikTok account led to a post pinned on his account, captioned, "AI is real. Are UFOs?"
Malinski began his video by saying, "I made a fake UFO video with AI—it got millions of views." While he was saying this, a frame of the video in question was displayed.
In the video, Malinski said that the video in question was an example of AI-generated content that could confuse people and make AI indistinguishable from real life.
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