AI-generated visuals are falsely shared as real photos and videos of the January 2025 Los Angeles fires
In the wake of the devastating fires in Los Angeles (here, here, and here), a photo (here, here, and here) (archive link) allegedly showing the iconic Hollywood sign burning away is doing the rounds on social media. Along with this, a video(here and here) that claims to show the impact and fury of the LA fires is also being shared across social media. We verify the authenticity of these posts through this article.
Claim: Visuals of the January 2025 LA Fires.
Fact: Both the photo and video are generated using Artificial Intelligence tools. This fire has not affected the Hollywood sign in LA as of 15 January 2025. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
Image of the Hollywood Sign burning
To verify this photo, we initially performed a keyword search to understand if the media reported this. However, as of the time of this article, i.e., 15 January 2025, we have not found any credible media reports on such a thing.
During this search, we found a video report published on 11 January 2025 by the Toronto Star, which featured visuals of locals checking in on the Hollywood sign, which was unaffected by the fire(status of the active fires in LA can be found here and here) and still intact.
In this regard, a spokesperson of the Hollywood Sign Trust spoke to ‘The Dispatch’ and clarified that the Hollywood Sign is not on fire and is not in the line of danger. The official website on the Hollywood Sign also contains an announcement that states ‘The Hollywood Sign is safe from the fires in Los Angeles. Griffith Park is currently closed and there is no hiking/biking to the Sign at the moment.”
The Sunset fire, which, according to news reports, was a threat to the Hollywood Sign, is now 100% contained according to ‘The Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’ of California. As per the information provided by Google Maps, which displays the areas affected by the LA fires, there is no fire around the Hollywood sign.
This information makes it clear that the LA fires have not yet affected the Hollywood sign. During the investigation, we found an ‘X’ post by a user named Benjamin De Kraker that had a viral image. He said that it was an AI-generated image.
The Watermark of Grok, an AI chatbot of X, can be found in the image. To verify this, we ran an analysis on AI content detection tools like Hive and Sight Engine and found the image to be AI-generated.
We performed a keyword search to check if media reports contained the video clips seen in this viral video. But, we did not find any credible news reports.
However, we found a few posts of this video on ‘X,’ on which users have expressed their doubts about the video being real. Taking this as a hint, we ran the video through Hive, an AI content detection tool, and found that the video has a 99.9% likelihood of being an AI-generated content.
To sum up, AI-generated visuals are falsely shared as real photos and videos of the January 2025 Los Angeles fires.