For many decades, conspiracy theorists have attempted to argue that NASA’s missions to the lunar surface were somehow faked — and the space agency’s latest trip around the Moon and back is no different.
Except this time, the widespread proliferation of AI slop is supercharging the trend, with denialists pointing to faked, AI-generated footage as “proof” of their claims with no apparent sense of irony.
One particularly sticky video shows the crew of four astronauts hanging by harnesses in front of a large green screen. As France 24 points out, it doesn’t take much analysis to conclude that it’s AI slop, from glitching overlaid text that interferes with the floating Artemis mascot in the shot to missing limbs and the wrong number of fingers on some of their hands.
Why anybody who actually believed NASA had faked its lunar flyby would choose to AI generate footage as counterevidence is a question worth asking. Is it a believer so die-hard that they’re willing to use fake evidence to convince others of their cracked worldview — or is a troll getting a kick out of fooling gullible conspiracy theorists on social media?
If there’s one certainty, it’s that prevalent AI slop could further entrench belief in idiotic conspiracy theories, once again highlighting the dangers of the tech and how it’s continuing to undermine the validity of the information we encounter online — and consequently, the very concept of truth itself.
More AI-generated footage identified by the CBC shows a fake shot of the interior of the spacecraft, which pans from the four astronauts to a view of the Earth outside a small window — leading to the obvious question of who could’ve been recording the clip. Disinformation expert Tal Hagin found that the footage was likely “an AI-spliced video using two different images,” including a “screenshot of the Artemis II crew waving” and an “image taken of Earth from one of the windows.”
“AI was used to connect the two,” Hagin concluded.
The sheer scale of the trend is troubling. A simple search for the term “Artemis leaks” on Elon Musk’s X-formerly-Twitter — a platform that has long been plagued by a largely unmoderated mountain of AI slop and disinformation — reveals how widespread the trend is, from generated footage of a fake Moon being hung in front of a green screen to brainrot claims that NASA had used “AI and CGI and green screens.”
The situation doesn’t look much better on Facebook, with “flat earth” accounts pointing to previously generated AI slop to argue that NASA had used “CGI to fake a space mission.”
In short, the situation is painful to witness: people so convinced of a false reality that they’re willing to fake evidence to support it.
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