Did American actor George Clooney make a video, in Serbian, advising on the value of choosing peace instead of engaging in unnecessary conflict? No, that's not true: The video was made using AI tools.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here), on TikTok on September 19, 2023, with the following hashtags in the caption (translated by Lead Stories from Serbian to English): "#lifenottalk #tips #advice #Serbia #Bosnia." The audio (also translated by Lead Stories staff from Serbian to English) was:
With time I realized something very important; I don't have the energy to argue seriously anymore. There was a time when I would do anything to have the last word, to prove that I was right, but today I choose peace. I realized that some people love chaos, love to create problems and seek conflict. That is not for me anymore. In fact, I distanced myself from those people not because I hate them but because I love my inner peace too much, because every minute spent in unnecessary conflict is a minute of lost happiness. I'd rather be misunderstood than constantly disagree with people because, in the end, does it really benefit me if my peace means that some people will look through me or move away from me? So be it, I don't have the energy to justify myself anymore. I simply choose to be happy away from unnecessary fights. I honestly advise you to do the same. This is a piece of advice from me for you.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Sat Sep 30 08:37:36 2023 UTC)
Lead Stories ran an image from the video through reverse image search engines on October 18, 2023, but no results came back. This is unusual for images of celebrities as they are often picked up by such tools.
(Source: TinEye screenshot taken on Wed Oct 18 07:45:12 2023 UTC)
The same image was put through Hive Moderation's AI Detector, an AI-generated content detector, and got a score of 93.5 percent likelihood that the content is AI-generated. According to the platform's analysis, the content was most likely created using the text-to-image tool Stable Diffusion.
(Source: Hive Moderation screenshot taken on Sat Sep 30 08:59:06 2023 UTC)
According to Forbes:
AI-powered visual content creation tools are also going mainstream. Text-to-image AI models like DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion have been revolutionizing the way visual content is created.
There are several different companies now offering AI detection tools including Optic, Intel and Microsoft. And while AI technology can create increasingly realistic images and videos, there are telltale signs that the content has been manipulated. According to the Thomson Reuters guide on how to spot manipulated videos, signs that specific content is a deepfake are unnatural movements or distortions in the video or audio.
In the above TikTok, the body remains completely static while the head is moving. Normally, people move their bodies while speaking, even if only slightly. This is especially true for a selfie video, as would be the case here, because it is hard to keep your arm totally still for long.
Another indicator of artificially generated content is the way the mouth moves. Although timed to the words, the movement of the lips is quite mechanical and sometimes doesn't sync perfectly.
The teeth also look blurred at different points in the video. The image on the left shows more defined teeth while the image on the right shows them more blurred.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image made using TikTok screenshots taken on Sat Sep 30 09:21:12 2023 UTC)
