Fact Check: Video of polar bear and cub being rescued by fishermen in Arctic region is AI generated
AI technology is rapidly advancing and people are increasingly creating realistic and lifelike videos. It is becoming
Claim :
Video shows a polar bear caught in the net and stranded along with its child being rescued by the fishermenFact :
The video is AI generated and does not show rescue of polar bear in Arctic ice
AI technology is rapidly advancing and people are increasingly creating realistic and lifelike videos. It is becoming highly difficult to distinguish them from real videos. This progress has been possible because of improved algorithms and vast data sets. As AI tools like Soro, Meta AI are easily accessible to all users, anyone can create videos looking real, with minimum editing skills.
One such video showing a polar bear being entangled in a fish net stranded on Arctic ice, ,along with its cub, is going viral on the social media. The bear can be seen rescued by the fishermen travelling on a ship. The video gives a strong message of how the innocent animals are falling prey to the human activities even in the icy regions.
In a research article published in 2022 in the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Science Advances journal, it was estimated that “nearly 2% of all fishing gear, comprising of different types of fishing net, more than 25 million pots and traps are lost to the ocean annually.”
Considering just the fishing nets alone that had been abandoned, they equate to an area the same size as the country of Panama. While there are no reliable estimates for how many polar bears might perish each year from being entangled in abandoned fishing nets, there are numerous reports of the impact of abandoned fishing nets on other species, which has been driven to near extinction.
This video is garnering many shares with captions like “Polar bear and cub saved from tragic net trap.”
The claim is False. The video of fishermen rescuing polar bear is AI generated.
When we searched the keyframes extracted from the video using Google reverse image search, we found a YouTube video published on the channel named Pawsitive Vibes only. In the description, the user clearly mentions that this video contains altered or synthetic content- Sound or visuals were significantly or digitally generated.
We also found similar videos published on other YouTube channels, with the baby cub stuck in the net while the mother bear looks worried. And later on, the fishermen rescue the cub from the net.
When we checked the video using the AI video detection tool named Hiya detection tool, part of Invid, we found that the video is detected to be 95% AI generated. The algorithms of the verification plugin found very strong evidence that suggests that the video contains AI manipulated faces.
Another video of little polar bear cub stranded on the melting iceberg being rescued by a group of people was also viral few days ago, but it was checked and debunked by Snopes, stating clearly that the video was AI generated. In this video, we can see people on the ship rescuing the bear cub and hugging it. The article also discusses on how AI is creating believable deepfake videos.
Therefore, the viral video of a polar bear stuck in a fishing net is not real, it is AI generated. Though the dangers of polar animals getting stuck in the abandoned fishing gear is high, the video does not show real incident. The claim is False.
