Several videos ( here , here , here , here , and here ) have gone viral on social media showing ocean shipping containers that appear to be filled with iPhones and people trying to retrieve them. Various clips of individuals collecting floating containers and equipment have been circulating online. Let’s find out the truth behind these videos.
Claim: A viral video shows people recovering iPhones from floating shipping containers.
fact: The video is generated by AI. The clip contains some visual inconsistencies that are consistent with AI-generated content. Additionally, the original upload came from an Instagram account that posts AI-generated content. AI detection tools like Hive flagged the video as 99% AI-generated. Therefore, the argument is error.
To find out the truth, we first checked for reliable reports about such incidents, but found none. I then took a closer look at the video and noticed some inconsistencies. In some clips, the iPhone box appears unusually large, which is not normal. In other instances, the box only displays the Apple logo and no product images or text, which is not typical of actual packaging. Unnatural movements of people collecting and carrying boxes were also observed. This is a common symptom of AI-generated footage. Now let’s examine each video individually.
video 1
This video of people pulling out their iPhones verified the discrepancy mentioned above. To trace the origin of the clip, I performed a reverse image search on Google, which led me to an account named Instagram where it was originally uploaded. oye_sanki_1. The account’s profile clearly states that it posts experimental videos created using artificial intelligence. This confirms that the viral clip was generated by AI. We also found several other AI-generated videos posted to the same account (here, here, and here).
To verify whether the video was generated by AI, we ran it through the AI detection tool Hive, which flagged it as 99.9% AI-generated. This further confirms that the video was indeed generated by AI.
video 2
The video also shows two people retrieving an iPhone from a floating container, but as mentioned earlier, it contains some inconsistencies. When we ran this video through the AI detection tool Hive, it showed a 99.9% chance that it was also generated by AI, confirming that the video is not real.
video 3
This video makes a similar claim and even states that it found an iPhone 16 Pro Max. However, as mentioned above, the box shown is unusually large and bears no resemblance to Apple’s original packaging. Running this video through Hive showed a 99% chance that it was generated by AI, confirming that this clip was also not from a real incident.
To summarize, the video of people recovering iPhones from floating ship containers was generated by AI.
