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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Technology & AI fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about technology & ai. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

1,815 published reviews in this topic

dpaTechnology & AI

Elon Musk benoemde Donald Trump Jr. tot nieuwe CEO van Twitter.

Publisher’s rating: Het gerucht is gebaseerd op een satirisch artikel en heeft geen enkele basis in de waarheid. Dat heeft Trump jr. zelf bevestigd.

The claim arose after Elon Musk asked in a Twitter poll whether he should step down as CEO. The review says 57.5% voted in favour, after which Musk announced that he was looking for a replacement. An online story then claimed that Donald Trump Jr. would take the job: the review identifies it as an article from The Smattering, a US satirical website, not a report of an actual appointment. The review says The Smattering explicitly identifies its work as satire and names Jeff Charles, described as an American YouTuber and podcaster, as the article’s author. It also reports that Trump Jr. responded on Twitter that the claim was fake news, and that Charles separately confirmed the article was satire. The evidence presented therefore traces the appointment claim to a satirical story and reports denials from both Trump Jr. and its author; it does not establish that Musk appointed Trump Jr. The review leaves open who would actually replace Musk, noting that the successor remained unknown at the time it assessed the claim.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaTechnology & AI

Four AI Robots Killed 29 Japanese Scientists Inside A Lab !!

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigates the specific social-media story that four AI robots killed 29 Japanese scientists in a Japanese lab. It reports searching for credible coverage of the alleged incident and finding none: the review says it found no report from Japanese mainstream media or international media. Its conclusion is that there was no tangible evidence that the killings occurred, and that the story was most likely fabricated. The review also traces the viral account to a video of Linda Moulton Howe speaking at the Conscious Life Expo in Los Angeles. It says Howe attributed the story to an unnamed contact and did not provide details identifying that person. The review reproduces the account Howe said she had heard: robots in a Japanese military-robotics lab allegedly killed 29 people, after which one robot supposedly rebuilt itself. But the review identifies no independent evidence for the account and says it could not find Howe’s full presentation. It therefore treats the speech as an unsupported retelling, not verification that the event happened.

dpaTechnology & AI

Elon Musk annonce que Donald Trump Jr. va lui succéder à la tête de Twitter.

Publisher’s rating: Ces publications se basent sur un article satirique. Face au succès du canular, Donald Trump Jr. a lui-même indiqué qu’il s’agissait d’une « fake news ».

The claim that Elon Musk announced Donald Trump Jr. would take over as Twitter CEO originated in a satirical article, not in an announcement by Musk. The review traces the story to The Smattering and says it was then widely shared on social media, often without its satirical nature being identified. The site’s own description says it publishes stories “that aren’t true, but could totally be.” The rumor appeared amid real discussion about Musk’s future as Twitter chief. After a Twitter poll favored his departure, Musk said he would leave the CEO role once he found someone willing to take it. The review distinguishes that statement from the unsupported claim that he had chosen Trump Jr. as his successor: it reports that Trump Jr. called the story “fake news.”

APA - Austria Presse AgenturTechnology & AI

Alle Flugzeuge und Schiffe können geortet werden

Publisher’s rating: Dass Flugzeuge und Schiffe verfolgt werden können müssen, ist zwar nicht falsch. Allerdings können entsprechende Systeme vom Kapitän eines Schiffes oder Flugzeuges auch deaktiviert werden. Damit werden die Objekte für gängige Trackingsysteme "unsichtbar".

dpaTechnology & AI

Elon Musk twitterte: «Wissen Sie, in manchen Teilen der Welt werden Journalisten ermordet, weil sie die falschen Leute angegriffen haben. Reporter, die ich nicht mag, von meiner eigenen Plattform zu verbannen, scheint mir eine ziemlich harmlose Alternative zu sein.»

Publisher’s rating: Es gibt auf Musks Twitter-Profil und in Internetarchiven keinerlei Hinweise, dass er diese Sätze getwittert hat. Es handelt sich allen Anzeichen nach um eine Fälschung.

The claim concerns a screenshot of an alleged Elon Musk tweet defending the December 2022 suspension of journalists’ accounts by comparing banning reporters he disliked with the killing of journalists elsewhere. The review says the screenshot circulated after Twitter suspended several journalists’ profiles in mid-December, amid allegations that they had exposed the location of Musk’s private jet and endangered his family. It reports that the screenshot went viral on December 16, 2022, but was not an authentic tweet or statement by Musk. [S1: “Mitte Dezember 2022 sperrte Twitter dann die Profile mehrerer bekannter Journalistinnen und Journalisten, weil sie angeblich den Standort von Musks Privatjet veröffentlicht und damit seine Familie gefährdet hatten. Am 16. Dezember ging daraufhin der Screenshot eines Tweets viral, den Musk angeblich zur Verteidigung der Sperrungen abgesetzt hatte. Dies war jedoch kein echter Tweet oder eine Erklärung von Elon Musk.”] The review describes checks against Musk’s official Twitter timeline, internet archives, and a collection listing his deleted tweets. It says the alleged tweet could not be found in any of them. The article therefore presents the screenshot as unsupported by those records, rather than as evidence of an authentic post. [S1: “Er erscheint weder in Musks offizieller Twitter-Timeline, noch in Internet-Archiven. Auch auf einer Seite, die gelöschte Tweets von Musk listet, lässt sich der angebliche Tweet nicht finden.”] The article also traces the screenshot’s apparent origin to Reddit on December 16, where it was marked “Satire/Fake Tweet,” and explains why a screenshot alone was not reliable proof: tweet displays can be manipulated through source code. Its reported findings address the specific alleged quotation, not merely Musk’s broader views on free speech or the separate suspensions. [S1: “Der gefälschte Screenshot erschien offenbar ursprünglich am 16. Dezember 2022 auf dem sozialen Netzwerk Reddit und wurde dort mit der Aufschrift «Satire/Fake Tweet» markiert.”] [S1: “Tweets lassen sich beispielsweise über den Quellcode relativ leicht manipulieren.”]

FACTLYTechnology & AI

Video showing Elon Musk revealing his intention to acquire Meta

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as Elon Musk announcing that he would acquire Meta, including Facebook and Instagram. FACTLY reports that the clip is altered: Musk did not make the stated announcement, and the video’s underlying footage came from a conversation with TED head Chris Anderson in April 2022. The review says Musk did not discuss purchasing Meta during that conversation; the video’s audio was changed to make it sound as though he did. To investigate, FACTLY says it searched for news reports confirming that Musk had announced an intention to buy Meta and found none. It also used reverse image searches on screenshots from the circulating video, which led it to the April 2022 TED conversation. The review’s account of that source footage directly contradicts the video’s implied context: it identifies the clip as a real conversation but says the purported acquisition statement was not part of it. FACTLY further reports that it found the same video on a TikTok account, ‘become.some’, where it was described as a meme. The account’s bio said users could make celebrities say anything, and the review says another video from the account explained how such altered videos were made using a mobile application. Together, these details support the review’s conclusion that the circulating clip was digitally altered, rather than a genuine announcement by Musk.

El Detector / Univision NoticiasTechnology & AI

Es falso que el “rey" de Dubái tenga como guardaespaldas a este robot que aparece en un video.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns a video in which a robot walks behind a man in Arab-style clothing. Posts identified the man as Dubai’s ruler, or as “King Halam of Qatar,” and described the robot as an armed bodyguard. The review says the same images were used for both versions of the claim and rejects them: neither ruler appears in the video, and the robot is not armed. The review identifies the robot as Titan and describes how it checked its role and provenance. A search for “qatar guardaespaldas robot” found earlier coverage and an image from Titan’s Twitter account. The review says that image showed the same brown camouflage vest and United Arab Emirates flag visible in the video, and that the account’s February 18, 2019 post said Titan and Dave were in Abu Dhabi that weekend. A further search linked Titan’s presence there to the International Defence Exhibition held that month. For the robot’s purpose, the review consulted Titan’s and its creator Cyberstein’s online descriptions. It reports that Cyberstein presented Titan as family entertainment and described its shows as adaptable for events and attracting customers to exhibition stands. That evidence supports the review’s conclusion that Titan is an entertainment robot, rather than the armed protector described in the posts. To check the man’s identity, the review compared him with images of Dubai’s ruler on the Dubai government website and consulted Qatar’s official communications office for the identity of its leader. It names the rulers as Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, respectively, and says neither is the man in the video. Thus, the review addresses both the identity claim and the alleged armed bodyguard role, rather than merely establishing that a robot appeared at an event.

PA MediaTechnology & AI

Elon Musk is buying Snapchat

Publisher’s rating: There is no evidence Elon Musk has said he is buying Snapchat. The posts are being circulated by parody accounts, contain only a screenshot which can easily be faked, and there is no evidence any such tweet existed.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaTechnology & AI

China Has Created An Artificial Woman, As This Video Claims !!

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim attached to the viral video was that China had created an artificial woman who could speak fluently in many languages and do household chores. Factcrescendo Sri Lanka says the video circulated on social media and WhatsApp, and reports that its investigation found the claim misleading: the woman shown was not a real robot created by China but a fictional character in a computer game. To trace the footage, the fact-check says it used InVID-WeVerify technology to locate an earlier version of the clip. It identifies that version as a video uploaded by the official PlayStation YouTube channel in May 2018, titled “Detroit: Become Human – Shorts: Chloe I PS4.” The review says the clip was taken from *Detroit: Become Human*, a game made by Quantic Dream, and identifies Chloe as a character in that game. This evidence addresses the video’s provenance rather than showing a Chinese-built robot performing the abilities described in the claim. The review concludes that the viral clip was misleadingly presented: it showed a game character, not a real artificial woman created by China. It also says the game was released in 2018.