What you need to know
- A clip showing a huge wall of snow trapped between apartment buildings in Russia has gone viral
- Viewers questioned the footage as warning signs emerged, with experts saying snow formation was unlikely.
- Investigators have warned that viral videos shared without verification could undermine public trust in authenticity online.
According to the BBC, an AI-generated video claiming to show an extreme snowdrift in Russia’s Far East is going viral in the wake of record snowfall. One video, set in the Kamchatka region, shows people sliding down a huge snowdrift sandwiched between two skyscrapers.
The video may seem dramatic at first glance, but the BBC reported that it’s not real. One post of an imaginary scene received about 1 million views on X. And unlike other viral clips, it wasn’t labeled as AI-generated.
There were multiple red flags that suggested the footage wasn’t real, including physically unlikely snow formations. Experts said a drift this steep and high would likely cause people to sink or fall, and unstable structures to collapse.
The outlet also reported that an in-house AI checker examined the video frame by frame and determined it to be fake. Investigators also said the clip contained “seemingly impossible” elements that indicated it was generated rather than filmed.
Henk van Ess, an expert in using AI for investigative research, came to the same conclusion after testing footage using the ImageWhisperer tool. He warned that such viral videos, if spread unchecked, could cause serious problems.
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As fake images fool journalists, Van Es told the BBC: “We are facing a crisis of verification.” He added that content that seems harmless now can quickly turn into something far more dangerous in the future.
“It’s a pretty snowy picture today,” Van Ess said. “Tomorrow will be a fabricated disaster or a war zone.”
He also warned that the constant circulation of AI-generated videos without proper fact-checking could change the way people trust what they see. “Every time the media runs these reports without checking, they are training viewers to either believe everything or believe nothing,” he said.
Kamchatka experienced record snowfall, with some areas receiving up to 10 feet of snow.
