On Sunday, amid rumors that Netanyahu had been assassinated, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video from a Tel Aviv coffee shop debunking claims about Netanyahu’s death.
Given that rumors about Netanyahu’s death started with a claim that a video of Netanyahu posted on his official social media account was generated by AI, the coffee shop video sparked similar speculation. On top of that, claims made by Elon Musk’s X chatbot, Goke, only increased the speculation even further.
Social media users claimed that a previous video showed Prime Minister Netanyahu holding up six fingers on his hand. However, this claim was debunked as a hoax by Türkiye’s Anadolu news agency.
Amid speculation that the coffee shop video was a deepfake, Grok responded to a user’s question and said the video was indeed generated by AI. In a later response to the same threat, Grok said the video was “100% deepfake.” Given that the video was published on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official social media accounts, Grok’s reaction only fueled the uproar.
“This was generated by AI,” Grok wrote. “This is a deepfake of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu casually drinking coffee in a coffee shop and talking about Iran-Lebanon operations and protected areas. No such real-life event exists. The original post explicitly referred to this as advanced undisclosed AI.”
When asked again, Mr. Grok replied: “Yes, 100% sure. This is an advanced AI deepfake. Is Prime Minister Netanyahu casually discussing sensitive Iranian/Lebanon information while drinking coffee in a public cafe? No such actual event exists and is not reported anywhere. The original post even flagged it as undisclosed AI technology.”
Rumors about the possible assassination of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been circulating on social media since the US and Israeli attack on Tehran led to the death of Iran’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Photos of Netanyahu were regularly shared on social media handles, and once these rumors were proven false, new rumors that Netanyahu’s brother Id and Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir were killed in an airstrike spread as well. But their mistakes were soon exposed as both Prime Minister Ido Netanyahu and Ben Gvir remained safe.
Also read: As Prime Minister Netanyahu disappears from public life, President Trump makes bombshell remarks: Is Mojtaba Khamenei still alive?
Where is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 76, remains in Tel Aviv, Israel, according to his social media accounts. On Sunday, apart from the video in Coffee, the PMO’s X account shared a clip from a news broadcast during the Iran war.
The post is as follows:
Before the coffee shop video, the last update from the Israeli PMO’s official handle was on Friday, March 13th. The lack of posts on Saturday fueled rumors about Netanyahu’s death.
Notably, after the initial US and Israeli attacks, the now-proven false claim that Prime Minister Netanyahu had fled to Berlin, Germany against the backdrop of a possible assassination attempt by Iran quickly spread.
