{"id":384239,"date":"2026-01-22T13:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/384239\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:48:08","slug":"bbc-verify-russia-tower-blocks-snow-drift-video-made-using-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/384239\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Verify: Russia tower blocks snow drift video made using AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Expert warns of \u2018verification crisis\u2019 as AI fake videos spreadpublished at 12:16 GMT<\/p>\n<p>12:16 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-arspwv-Contributor etflsgg2\">Sherie Ryder and Richard Irvine-Brown<br \/>BBC Verify<\/p>\n<p>      <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A grab from another AI-generated video of snow in Kamchatka shows people apparently sledding down a huge drift between two buildings\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/3fbcd7f4-73f1-4272-ae5e-0ba24fa38ed1.png.webp.webp\"  width=\"800\" height=\"800\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Another example of an AI-generated video of extreme snow in Russia\u2019s Kamchatka region shows people sliding down a giant drift between two high-rise buildings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">One post of the imaginary scene has been viewed around a million times on X. But, unlike the TikTok clips we reported on earlier, it was not labelled or described as being made with AI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">As with those videos there are obvious, seemingly impossible, elements which indicate AI has been used. With a drift so steep and high, people attempting to slide down it would more than likely sink into the snow, fall down it or cause the fragile snow formation to collapse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Our in-house AI checker, which examines videos frame-by-frame, rated it as a fake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Henk van Ess, an expert in using AI in investigative research, also ran the videos through his ImageWhisperer tool and concluded they were fake. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He told us when images like this and the earlier example fool journalists \u201cwe\u2019ve got a verification crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cToday it&#8217;s pretty snow footage. Tomorrow it&#8217;s a fabricated disaster or conflict zone. Every time media runs these without checking, they&#8217;re training audiences to either believe everything or nothing,\u201d Van Ess added.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Map showing Russia's Kamchatka region in the country's far east\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/8fdaae0b-2b00-4853-8b08-2923618fd4fa.png.webp.webp\"  width=\"1600\" height=\"1369\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Expert warns of \u2018verification crisis\u2019 as AI fake videos spreadpublished at 12:16 GMT 12:16 GMT Sherie Ryder and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-384239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}