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| - A rumor circulating online in January 2025 claimed a flight attendant named "Jessica" humiliated Google CEO Sundar Pichai after observing his appearance and questioning his first-class airline ticket. According to the story, the flight attendant became suspicious of the Indian-born executive's presence in first class after observing his appearance, including his attire of a T-shirt and jeans, and the lack of an expensive watch, high-end shoes or a luxury briefcase. After questioning him, she learned his identity as the CEO of Google, leaving her embarrassed, prompting an apology to Pichai and leading to a reevaluation of worldwide airline-training programs.
A Snopes reader asked via email, "This story has been trending on Medium, Facebook and WhatsApp. It appears to be a fake story about Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Can you verify this?" The reader included a link to a story hosted on the publishing platform Medium.com. The headline of the Jan. 11, 2025, article read, "Flight Attendant Insults Sundar Pichai in First Class — The Truth Will Shock You!"
A Google search for further examples of users sharing the story about Pichai displayed results on Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube and X. Some of these posts showed remarks from users who believed the story was true. One X user posted a video promoting the story, "Feeling mildly unhappy that a story — which I'm sure is AI-generated slop — is going viral on Indian WhatsApp."
As that user believed, the airplane tale was indeed false in its entirety. A Google News search located no contemporaneous reports of any such incident. Someone concocted the story as engagement bait to attract video views and possibly advertising revenue.
How We Determined the Rumor's False Rating
A user managing the Bold Voices YouTube channel published one of the earliest videos promoting this story on Jan. 10. The clip received over 100,000 views. The video featured a disclaimer in the clip's description explaining its channel's content as "fictional stories." The end of the Medium.com article also carried a disclaimer describing its text as a "fictional story."
The YouTube video's creator created the clip's thumbnail image with an unknown artificial intelligence (AI) tool. It featured a fake perspective of a flight attendant berating Pichai in a section of an airplane resembling economy, not first class. The clip itself displayed fake pictures of Pichai sitting in at least three different airplane seats — as well as a chair in an office setting — and also included AI-generated scripting and narration.
Another sign of the story's questionable nature included the fact the video's scripting mistakenly mentioned two last names for the flight attendant, as both "Jessica Parker" and "Jessica Thompson." The story also lacked key identifying details, including a date when the incident occurred, a name for the airline and the names of other people mentioned in the story, including for example the flight's "captain" and a "famous actress" seated near Pichai.
Further evidence the story was fabricated came from other recent AI-generated YouTube videos falsely depicting flight attendants insulting figures like U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, former first lady Melania Trump, actor Keanu Reeves and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, among others. Hoping for viral hits, users created these videos featuring numerous celebrities.
We previously reported about other similar YouTube videos featuring made-up stories and elements generated by AI. For example, one such false story claimed staff at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport asked Sasha Obama to leave, while another fictional story said Barron Trump, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's youngest son, gave up his first-class airplane seat to a military veteran.
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