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| - A video shared on social media in mid-November 2024 purportedly showed a boat crew rescuing a polar bear cub. The footage starts with the animal dangling off the side of a ship before its human rescuers pull it aboard and comfort it.
One X post with the video said the "adorable polar bear was rescued and now has a second chance at life."
The clip included a watermark identifying the source of the footage: a TikTok account called @mysticwild. That account creates content using artificial-intelligence (AI) software, as stated in its bio:
Crafting dreams with AI. Step into a realm where magic merges with tech.
In other words, the video was not real. The @mysticwild TikTok account originally posted the it on Nov. 10, 2024, with the caption: "A Cute Polar Bear Rescued #polarbear."
Although the footage is fake, some people believed or questioned its authenticity.
One TikTok user commented, "Look at how happy the bear is …," while another asked, "Is this real?"
The video displays visual inconsistencies that are common with AI-generated content.
For example, the polar bear has five legs at the 6-second mark.
(TikTok/Mysticwild)
At another point, its front paw wipes through its handler's arm before morphing into a bear paw that resembles a human hand.
(TikTok/Mysticwild)
Again, at the 14-second mark in the video, the hind leg of the bear's paw also appears unnatural and deformed.
(TikTok/Mysticwild)
While evaluating whether such media is real or AI-generated content, Capitol Technology University in Washington, D.C., wrote: "AI struggles with details, especially in hands, faces, and textures. Look for inconsistencies like extra fingers or too many teeth, unnatural blending of skin tones, and overly smooth textures, which can be signs of AI generation."
The video's originator, @mysticwild, has published other videos (here and here) of polar bear and human interactions that also have clear signs of AI technology — such as overly blurred fur, and a lack of shadows and paw prints in the snow when the bears or humans move.
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