Claim:The video shows an explosion occurring near Dubai’s Burj Khalifa after two jets fly through the tower.
fact:error. The video is generated by AI.
HYDERABAD: On February 28, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was reportedly killed in a joint US-Israeli airstrike. Iran’s government said the attack was unprovoked and illegal and responded by firing missiles at several Gulf states, including Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Amid this military escalation, a video went viral showing two jets flying by the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Explosions can be heard in the distance as a fire breaks out and smoke rises at the impact site.
One user shared the video on X (now deleted) and wrote: “Chaos due to Iranian missiles in Dubai… Panic everywhere… People running for their lives to save their lives.” (archive)
fact check
NewsMeter has found that this viral claim is false. The video is generated by AI.
Did the news report on the attack on Burj Khalifa?
No news reports were found that used the viral footage when reporting on the explosion near the Burj Khalifa Tower in Dubai.
Further analysis of the viral video revealed that the cameraman’s hand appeared to be distorted. This is a normal visual discrepancy that occurs in videos generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
To check if a video was created using AI, we used the AI detection tool Hive Moderation. The tool determined that this video has a 99.7% chance of being AI-generated or a deepfake.
Sight Engine, another AI detection tool, also determined that there was a 99% chance that the video was generated using AI.
Therefore, NewsMeter concludes that the viral video was generated by AI.
