Viral 'Emotional Support Kangaroo' Video Revealed as AI Creation, Sparking Debate on Digital Deception

The viral emotional support kangaroo is an AI creation

You might've seen those viral images and videos of the emotional support kangaroo in an airport. Hopefully, you at least wondered if the video was AI-generated. Or maybe you were fooled by a quick scroll. We're here to tell that, yes, the viral emotional support kangaroo was indeed AI-generated. How do we know it's AI? First, it's probably best to sit back and consider the video's content. A non-domesticated creature is acting as a service animal, calmly holding a boarding pass in its hands and staring at the camera like Jim Halpert from The Office. Brother, that is not real. Second, the original was posted to the Instagram account @InfiniteUnreality, which posts AI-generated and VFX content. That didn't stop the video from being spread all across the internet. Most notably, it was posted by the X account @DramaAlert, where it has racked up 73 million views. The responses online were a mix of people joyfully reposting, wondering what was going on at that airport, and lots of jokes. To be fair, a number of people also pointed out that the video was AI-generated. Community Notes on X eventually noted that it was AI-generated as well. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Needless to say, to those who were duped, AI-generated video is getting much better, even if the scenario itself -- an emotional support kangaroo -- was hard to believe. So, as always in the age of AI, be careful out there for fakes.

AI Video of Emotional Support Kangaroo on a Plane Fools Everyone

A video of an "emotional support" kangaroo holding a plane ticket has fooled a surprising amount of people. The bizarre video was created by an AI video specialist who operates an Instagram account titled Infinite Unreality. The video shows two people arguing at the gate of an airport in a nonsensical language as the camera zooms in on a small kangaroo wearing a backpack. The post is captioned, "No kangaroos on the plane." It was shared to X (formerly Twitter) by the Drama Alert account which racked up an astonishing 74 million views before being taken down and flagged with a Community Notes tag labeling it as AI-generated. The giveaways that it's AI include garbled text on the plane ticket and on the kangaroo's backpack, the nonsense language the two people are speaking, and the ultra-smooth camera movements. While there is a history of strange emotional support animals being taken on planes, a kangaroo holding a boarding pass is beyond the pale. But many people fell for the video. "How is this the first AI video I ever fell for? It literally has a kangaroo holding a boarding pass and I was like 'awh, just let her on the plane," writes Joe on X. In fairness, the kangaroo does look very real and the video even gets human hands right. It's not clear what AI model Infinite Unreality uses to make their video but it comes hot on the heels of the release of Google Veo 3 which has stunned people with its level of realism. A quick look at Infinite Unreality's Instagram account shows clearly that it posts AI-generated videos but the clever aspect of the kangaroo video is that it's not totally obvious that the situation is fake. The AI revolution that is currently taking place in technology shows no signs of slowing down and as these tools become more accessible, there will be more and more of these videos that fool people. Right now, not everyone in the world is aware of the power of these generative AI tools, but soon they will be. Already human creatives are facing accusations that their work is AI-generated when it's not, this will likely get much worse. In a recent post, Instagram head Adam Mosseri says he envisions a future where content is split into three categories: fully AI-generated content, human-generated content, and content where AI was part of the process.