In light of growing public interest in environmental and wildlife conservation, concerns have arisen due to the proliferation of fabricated images on social media depicting non-existent, alien-like animal species. These digitally manipulated images exploit public fascination with nature by portraying fictional creatures as newly discovered species. Our investigation focuses on one such incident, aiming to shed light on the phenomenon and its potential implications for scientific credibility, public awareness, and conservation efforts.
Social Media Posts
A video circulating on social media speaks of a recently discovered fish species called Homo Piscis, or human-faced fish, purportedly found in Lake Samsara in the tropical region of Karanji. The narration also elaborates on the unique features of these human-looking fish species, stating that they possess complex cognition and intelligence.
The short clip was widely shared among Facebook users from around the world in many languages.
This video is viral on WhatsApp, too.
We decided to do a fact-check on this.
Fact Check:
Lake Samsara & Karanji Region: We searched for a region called Karanji, and while there were several areas in India by that particular name, Lake Samsara was not found in any of these places. There is a Lake Karanji in Mysuru, Karnataka, India; however, there are no reports about discovering such a mysterious human-like species there.
Mainstream Media Coverage: There is no coverage by any of the reputed international mainstream media outlets regarding such a groundbreaking discovery either. If scientists had indeed found such a unique fish species resembling human faces, it would likely have been widely reported, but no such reports were found.
Scientific Validation: The alleged fish species, named Homo Piscis, does not appear in any scientific databases which provide authoritative taxonomic information. This absence raises doubts about the authenticity of the claim.
Source of Video: The video in question was uploaded to a YouTube channel called ‘Headtap Videos,’ which is known for creating many similar experiments in video and graphics, as seen here.
AI-Generated Fish Images: There is a high likelihood that the visuals in the video were computer-generated imagery (CGI), as confirmed by some AI detection tools. There is an overwhelmingly high probability of AI creation for most of the image grabs from the viral video, which depicted human-faced fish species, as seen here (99.9% AI), here (97.7%) and here (99.9%) on the Hive Moderation, an AI Detection tool.
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Conclusion:
There is no credible evidence to support the claim of the discovery of a human-faced fish species named Homo Piscis in Lake Samsara or any other location. The video is a CGI creation using AI-based generative content, uploaded by a channel known for creating similar graphics-based content.
Title:AI-Generated Images Used in the Fictional Story of Human-Faced Fish in Lake Samsara
Written By: Kalana KrishanthaResult: False
