AI-generated Darth Vader video fools CNN, Fox News, UPI, and dozens of other outlets
Published · updated · curated by AI Is Going Just Great
Source: techlicious.com ↗
"Even journalists, such as ourselves, are at risk of being taken in by stories that are just too good to resist."
An AI-manipulated video showing a costumed Darth Vader addressing a San Diego Public Safety Committee meeting in support of Flock Safety's license plate-tracking cameras circulated widely on August 20, 2026. CNN, Fox News, UPI, The Hill, and dozens of other outlets picked it up as real news. The City of San Diego's publicly available meeting archive tells a different story: a committee member calls for a speaker named Darth Vader, nobody steps forward, and the meeting moves on.
Side-by-side comparison with the official recording reveals the Vader footage, the supporting audience members, and the altered chyron reading "Non-Agenda Public Comment" are all fabricated. The video's premise — that the Dark Lord of the Sith would endorse surveillance cameras to track rebels "from playground to pool" — was apparently compelling enough that the joke-to-journalism pipeline took under 24 hours.