A claim has surfaced on the internet that Dubai has unveiled an AI robot salon that instantly curls hair.
The claim posted on X by user @Livingtricks_ had a 10-second video attached.
In the video, a dark-skinned woman with curly, coarse hair is seated as a machine resembling a steamer or stand hair dryer is automatically placed on top of her head to straighten her hair almost instantly, as white onlookers watch in the background.
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The post also had the following caption:
Dubai has launched an amazing AI salon robot that curls hair in an instant. No heat damage or contact, purely futuristic technology.
The video has received 2 million views, 3,300 likes and 444 reposts since it was posted on Saturday, December 13th.
Dubai launches AI-powered salon.
Survey results
Survey results fact checking hub The claim is error!
Close inspection of the video revealed several unnatural features, including background text, the appearance of people and hands, facial expressions, and hair movements, which strongly suggested that the content was created using synthetic media.
Additionally, the machine shown in the video straightened the woman's hair instead of curling it, as claimed.
When we ran the video through Hive Moderation, an AI detection tool, we found that the content was generated by AI 99.4% of the time.
Further investigation into whether Dubai has launched an AI-powered salon revealed that similar claims were being circulated across multiple social media platforms, each with a different deepfake video attached.
read: Video of man assembling AI-generated wooden airplane circulates online
judgment
The claim that Dubai has launched an AI-powered salon is false. The video depicting the story of the TP push used is generated by AI.
Fatima Quadri, an experienced fact-checker and researcher, has written numerous articles on fact-checking, commentary, and media literacy for The FactCheckHub to combat information failure. Contact her at sunmibola_q at X or fquadri@icirnigeria.org.
