AI Deepfakes Target Renowned Physicists to Spread Alien Spacecraft Misinformation

AI Deepfakes Targets Physicists to Push Claim That Comet Is an Alien Spacecraft

Don't miss out on our latest stories. Add PCMag as a preferred source on Google. Is an alien spacecraft visiting our solar system? A wave of videos featuring famed physicist Michio Kaku making that claim have been spreading on social media. But the scientist is warning the public the clips are actually AI deepfakes spreading misinformation. "There has been a sudden rise of fraudulent unauthorized deep fake AI videos, impersonating me, misleading the public with crazy false claims that are not my own," Kaku tweeted this week. The videos look convincing and exploit a real interview Kaku gave about 3I/ATLAS, which NASA tracks as a comet. It made the rounds after a recent research paper speculated that 3I/ATLAS might be "alien technology," despite the overwhelming consensus it is not. "The majority faction says 'What's all the fuss about? I mean It's just a rock from outer space,'" Kaku told Newsmax. "Another faction, however, says 'Now, wait a minute. Perhaps, this is a visitor. An intelligent visitor from another solar system.'" That's because 3I/ATLAS is the third object that astronomers have ever detected originating from outside our solar system. In the interview, Kaku adds that the scientific community will look for signs that 3I/ATLAS's speed increases as it circles the Sun -- an indication that the mysterious object is no mere comet, but features artificial propulsion. "If it picks up extra energy on its flyby, that would clinch it. That means there's extra terrestrial intelligence involved," he said in the interview. Theoretical physicist Avi Loeb has been the most vocal figure pushing the hypothesis that 3I/ATLAS could be an alien spacecraft, despite evidence that it's ejecting water vapor like a comet, although at a staggering rate. The problem is that the AI-generated videos of Kaku take things further by exploiting his image and voice to talk as if 3I/ATLAS is almost certainly an alien spacecraft or recon vehicle, and that it beamed energy to Mars or the Sun. Some clips even suggest the mysterious nature of 3I/ATLAS is already known to the US government and a cover-up is taking place. Physicist Brian Cox also reports seeing AI deepfakes of himself pushing similar misinformation on YouTube. "We keep telling them and they are bloody slow," he tweeted about trying to get Google to remove the videos. Kaku has also been calling on YouTube and TikTok to do more to crack down. "I call on AI thought leaders to put real efforts into stopping this blatant abuse of their inventions," he added. In the meantime, others have been monitoring for changes to 3I/ATLAS, which reached its perihelion today, the point in its orbit closest to the Sun. Loeb has said, "For a spacecraft, perihelion is the optimal time for either acceleration or deceleration by an impulse from an engine, thanks to the gravitational assist from the Sun." So, observers have been closely watching for any changes to 3I/ATLAS and its trajectory. YouTube and TikTok didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Physicist Brian Cox Thanks YouTube for Taking Down 'AI Shite' Accounts Featuring Deepfakes of Him Saying 'Nonsense' About Comet ATLAS 3i Being a Spaceship - IGN

Physicist Brian Cox has thanked YouTube for taking down accounts that used AI to create deepfakes of him saying "nonsense" about comet ATLAS 3i -- but was left wondering what the long-term solution is. Cox, Professor of Particle Physics at The University of Manchester and star of a number of high-profile science documentaries, took to X / Twitter earlier this week to complain about what he described as "AI shite of me popping up on YouTube." "The general rule is that if I appear to say something that you agree with and you are a UFO nobber, flat earth bell end or think comet ATLAS 3i is a spaceship, it's fake," he said in the tweet, now viewed 618,500 times. A lot of this revolves around 3I/ATLAS, which was discovered on July 1, 2025. Since then, astronomers have been working towards understanding the comet because, unlike other comets, 3I/ATLAS doesn't orbit the Sun. It's an interstellar comet, and one of only three we've ever seen. That means it entered our Solar System from elsewhere in the Galaxy, and will eventually exit it, and when it does leave our Solar System it will be gone forever. 3I/ATLAS is thought to be at least 7 billion years old, making it likely twice as old as Earth, and the oldest comet we've ever seen. Some people are saying 3I/ATLAS could be an alien mothership conducting a hidden maneuver around the sun, and now prominent scientists are discovering deepfakes showing them saying just that. In response to calls for YouTube to take action, Cox tweeted: "We keep telling them and they are bloody slow." It now appears YouTube has taken action, although, according to Cox, limited to the more prominent accounts. In a tweet, he wondered how this will all play out. "Thanks to @YouTube for taking down the more prominent AI accounts of me quickly - I'm not sure what the solution to this will be in the longer term. Doesn't matter so much if it's nonsense about a comet - but in other areas of science and certainly politics it's clearly important. Interested to know what you think?" This isn't the first time celebrities have complained about deepfakes. Earlier this month, Keanu Reeves hit out at AI deepfakes of the John Wick star selling products without his permission, insisting "it's not a lot of fun." In July, it was reported that Reeves pays a company a few thousand dollars a month to get the likes of TikTok and Meta to take down imitators. In 2023, Tom Hanks warned fans that an AI version of his likeness was being used without his consent in an online advert for a dental plan. Last year, Morgan Freeman thanked fans who alerted him to AI-generated imitations of his voice online after a series of videos created by someone posing as his niece went viral. And in May this year, Jamie Lee Curtis was forced to appeal to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an Instagram post because she couldn't get the company to pull an AI-generated ad that featured her likeness for "some bullshit that I didn't authorize, agree to or endorse." As for ATLAS 3i, Cox insisted it is, in fact, a comet, and not a spaceship. "Just to be clear - given recent drivel on line - Comet 3I/Atlas is a comet, made of carbon dioxide and water ices and bits of other stuff," he tweeted. "It is entirely natural in origin, its orbit is as expected and it will whizz around the sun and then disappear off into the galaxy again. If it ever encounters another inhabited solar system in the far future I hope the living things there are more sensible than us and enjoy it for what it is - a visitor from elsewhere in the galaxy - a pristine lump of rock and ices which formed around a distant, maybe long-dead star billions of years ago and many light years away, just passing through. Isn't that wonderful enough?"