This Viral video showing a huge aquarium collapse in California is AI-generated
A purported video showing a huge aquarium collapsing and sweeping away several people is going viral on social media (here, here). Many users are sharing this clip, claiming it depicts a real incident. Some posts allege that the video shows a catastrophic aquarium collapse in California in which 50 people died (here, here, here). In this article, let us fact-check the claim made in these posts.
Claim: Viral video shows a huge aquarium collapse in California that killed 50 people.
Fact: This viral video does not depict a real incident; it is AI-generated. Several visual inconsistencies, typical of deepfake or AI-generated content, can be observed in the footage. Moreover, AI content detection tools have flagged the clip as AI-generated. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
We conducted a relevant keyword search to verify whether a huge aquarium had collapsed in California, killing 50 people. However, we found no credible reports supporting the viral claim. If such an incident had actually taken place, it would certainly have been reported by the media.
On closer examination, the viral video appears unrealistic and contains several inconsistencies. For instance, the body of a woman in a blue T-shirt becomes disfigured and then disappears into the water after the aquarium collapses. Such anomalies are commonly found in AI-generated or deepfake videos (here and here), suggesting that this video was likely created using AI.
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video revealed that the same video (archived) was uploaded on TikTok by a user named ‘@the.worldai’ on 04 August 2025, where it was labelled as “AI-generated,” confirming that the visuals are artificial and not real. The profile of this page (@the.worldai) also states that it shares AI-generated content, and several similar videos can be found on the channel.
We also found that the same viral video was uploaded on 04 August 2025 on the YouTube channel of ‘@the.worldai’. YouTube labelled it with the disclaimer: “Sound or visuals in this video were significantly edited or digitally generated,” which confirms that the visuals are artificial and not real.
To further verify whether the viral video was AI-generated, we analysed it using AI content detection tools. Hive, an AI content detection tool, indicated a 97.6% likelihood that the video was AI-generated. Based on this evidence, it is clear that the viral video is AI-generated and does not depict a real incident.
This viral video may have been inspired by a real incident that took place in Berlin in December 2022. The ‘AquaDom’, the world’s largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium, suddenly burst in the lobby of the Radisson Blu Hotel. The 82-foot-tall structure contained nearly 1,500 exotic fish. The rupture caused extensive flooding in the hotel and nearby streets. While no human fatalities were reported, almost all the fish inside the AquaDom died (here, here, and here).
To sum it up, this viral video claiming to show a catastrophic aquarium collapse in California is fake and AI-generated.