A series of AI generated videos posted in recent days showing unusual sightings in Malta’s streets have duped many people into believing they are real.
The videos range from plausible events, such as photorealistic depictions of near-traffic accidents, to seemingly implausible, such as the sight of exotic animals freely roaming Malta’s streets.
The videos, posted by a TikTok profile named Al Quran-Tilawat, have rapidly racked up thousands of views.
One video, showing a lion attempting to pounce on a car as it pulls out of a parking spot, was viewed almost 30,000 times in just three days. Another, showing a monkey climbing up an electricity pole, was viewed almost 9,000 times in a single day.
Other videos feature a cheetah chasing a car down one of Malta’s main roads, a Zebra strolling down a road, and wild boars snaking their way through parked cars.
A more recent video features a more plausible scenario, showing a series of cars racing down a road, only narrowly missing a child and his father as they cross the street. The video is subtitled “Seriously…!!! Can’t they see a kid…”.
The same user has posted other AI-generated content in recent months, including several images of toddlers and other people in varying states of distress.
However, it is only in recent days that the user has taken to posting AI-generated videos depicting scenes from Malta’s streets.
Some eagle-eyed TikTok users promptly spotted the AI-generated content, pointing this out in the video’s comments section.
Others, however, have been duped by the videos, believing them to be real and sharing them across social media.
Deepfake detection tools appear to confirm that the videos are AI-generated.
It is unclear whether the videos are being created using the Sora 2, a newly-released version of the AI video generation tool which has made it simpler than ever to create AI videos, or another similar tool.
While many of the videos are relatively harmless, they are among the first examples of AI-generated content based in Malta being widely viewed and shared, raising concerns over the potential use of similar tools for nefarious purposes.
