Elon Musk has long been a topic of public discussion. Recently, a photo surfaced on social media showing him posing as a homeless man at a coffee shop. A social media user shared the photo, which attracted numerous reactions. However, Fact Crescendo found that AI generated the image. Here’s our analysis of the photo.
Social Media Claim
A Facebook user posted a photo comparison of Elon Musk dressed as a homeless man visiting a coffee shop, along with a claim that he disguised himself as homeless to test a café, encouraging users to watch the “end video” in the comments, which led many to believe the story was true.
For more information and specifics regarding this post, you can find the details below.
A video claiming Elon Musk went undercover in a coffee shop, like Undercover Boss, was also recently shared by a Facebook user. The video showed Musk disguised as a regular customer to observe the staff, fueling the viral claim and sparking widespread discussion on social media, despite lacking verification.
Similar claims have also been widely shared on other social media platforms, including Threads, which is owned by Meta.
Given the claim’s extensive dissemination and the considerable attention it has received from the internet community, we believed it was necessary to perform a fact-check on the above subject.
Fact Check
Fact Crescendo Cambodia verified these images using Google Reverse Image Search and AI verification.
As of the publication of this article, no credible news outlets or verified reports have confirmed such an event. High-profile figures like Elon Musk are usually followed closely by the media, and such a peculiar story would likely attract attention if it were true.
Elon Musk is a visionary entrepreneur and CEO of companies like Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter (X), known for his ambitious innovations in electric vehicles, space exploration, AI, and infrastructure.
An identical scene was found on a YouTube channel, posted on November 20, 2024. The 10-minute video depicts Elon Musk going undercover as a homeless man and visiting a coffee shop as part of a social experiment. However, the person shown is not the real Elon Musk, but rather a figure/image created by AI purely for fun and entertainment purposes.
The following is the full video clip originally published by “Storytime with Shelly”.
In their video, Storytime with Shelly also confirmed that the above content was generated using AI software. Their stories are crafted to entertain and thrill, showcasing fairy tales and narratives that both inspire and educate their audience.
The Hive Moderation website serves as a robust platform for verifying content generated by artificial intelligence, including both text and images. Recent analysis conducted through this program has revealed that more than 90% of the content in question was created solely by AI software.
This high percentage indicates that the elements analyzed exhibit characteristics typical of automated generation, underscoring the advancements in AI technology and its capability to produce realistic and coherent outputs.
(Image 01)
(Image 02)
Hive Moderation Link | Archived Link
We discovered that the photo was not genuine. After uploading the photo and link to the TrueMedia website, we verified that the image was generated by artificial intelligence (AI) rather than being a real photograph of an actual event.
This indicates that the image was not a real photograph but instead a digitally created scene, further confirming our findings.
TrueMedia Link | Archived Link
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Conclusion
Fact Crescendo found that the claim photo above is generated by AI. This photo was created using artificial intelligence (AI) technology, not an actual scene. The original video was found on a YouTube channel called “Storytime with Shelly” back in November 2024, which clarified that it was created with AI for entertainment purposes only.
Title:Did Elon Musk disguise himself as homeless to test a café?
Fact Check By: Kakada SimResult: Altered
