A viral video shared on Instagram purports to show unidentified flying objects (UFOs) over Maryland.

 

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Verdict: False

The video’s creator admitted he made the content with artificial intelligence (AI) in a subsequent post. A media forensics and AI expert also denied the video’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.

Fact Check:

Col. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a retired British defense chief, said “Russian sleeper agents” might be linked to recent drone sightings on military bases in the U.S. and U.K., Newsweek reported, citing the Daily Mail. Both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have denied Russia is linked to the drone sightings, the outlet reported.

The Instagram video, which has amassed over 200,000 likes as of writing, purports to show UFOs over Maryland. In the video, three small unidentified aircraft with flashing lights hover in place above trees at nighttime.

“Now they are over Maryland!!” the text that appears on the video reads.

The claim is false. A content detection scan using the website “TrueMedia.org” indicates the video “could be authentic or manipulated.” Likewise, Check Your Fact did not find the viral Instagram video referenced in any credible news reports about recent drone sightings in the U.S., including Maryland. Actually, the opposite is true. On Dec. 20, Reuters debunked the claim, reporting the video was AI-generated.

In addition, Joey Malinski, the video’s creator, admitted he made the content with AI in a subsequent post. Malinski shared the video to his Instagram account, @joeymalinski. The same video was also shared on Malinski’s YouTube channel. (RELATED: Video Shows Plane Crash, Not Drone Spotted Over East Coast)

“As a video creator, I’ve been using AI video generators and have seen the technology improve to the point where it’s almost indistinguishable from real life. This is both exciting and concerning, as it can lead to the spread of fake news,” Malinski wrote in the YouTube video’s description.

Besides Instagram, Malinski shared the AI-generated video of the UFOs to his TikTok account, where the clip garnered over 800,000 likes.

Finally, Dr. Walter Scheirer, a media forensics and AI expert at the University of Notre Dame, denied the video’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.

“This video is the product of a generative AI algorithm. The source is the Instagram account @joeymalinski, which openly posts AI generated content. The creator posted a video freely admitting to creating this fake video. In this case only basic provenance analysis is required to debunk the video,” Scheirer said.