Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 13 posted a video in which he talked about his country’s attacks on Iran. Social media users claimed that the video appeared to show Netanyahu having six fingers on his right hand. This, they said, was as a sign that artificial intelligence had been used to create the video. Older versions of AI tools sometimes showed human figures with extra fingers or limbs.

The purportedly inaccurate image was cited to raise questions about Netanyahu’s whereabouts and sparked rumours that he had been assassinated.

Netanyahu does not have six fingers. The extra digit that seemed to appear in the images being circulated was an optical illusion – his skin, at that angle, looked like an additional finger. The next day, the Israeli prime minister’s office refuted the claims, stating that Netanyahu was alright.

Perhaps because it was felt that the denial was insufficient, Netanyahu on March 15 posted a proof-of-life video showing him in a café in Jerusalem. The café also shared images of the visit.

Addressing the claims about his death, Netanyahu said in the video that he was “dying for coffee”. He then showed his hands, asking: “Do you want to count my fingers?”

But social media users refused to believe that this video was genuine. They claimed that it too had been generated using AI.

They falsely claimed that the date on the café’s billing machine was from 2024. It wasn’t. The date on the monitor was March 15, 2026. Others insisted that the video was old or had been recreated using footage from the Covid-19 pandemic because Netanyahu’s bodyguards were wearing face masks.

They claimed that the coffee – filled to the brim – had not spilt when Netanyahu lifted the cup. So this had to be AI, they claimed, ignoring the crema and physics.

Even Grok, the AI tool built by Elon Musk’s X, claimed that the video was a “deep fake”, created using AI.

Over the next two days, Netanyahu posted more videos. But it seemed that no evidence of reality was acceptable to users who had made up their mind.

‘This is AI’ an unfalsifiable response to reality?

Most accounts making the claims on social media platform X had blue ticks, a sign of premium membership that is a prerequisite for monetising content on the platform.

This means that some of the conspiracy theorising about Netanyahu’s death was “engagement farming” being conducted to make money. It did not matter to these accounts that it would only be a matter of time before they were proved wrong.

Yet, one could see that many ordinary users were buying into the claims that the videos were AI-generated.

Disinformation and engagement farming are not new. But what is concerning is, as this episode demonstrated, that conspiracy theories – aided by AI – are no longer acts of the fringe. Also alarming was the sheer number of people willing to reject or overlook reality.

This seemingly trivial debate on social media perhaps marks a turning point for human interaction with AI.

Reality, when inconvenient, can be challenged by simply declaring that the evidence is “AI-generated” – and enough people will be willing to believe the claim.

Until now, we were figuring out how to detect AI. Now we are forced to prove something is not AI.

As some pondered on social media, are we at a stage where claims that something is AI-generated are itself an unfalsifiable response to reality that cannot be proven wrong by empirical observation?

Here is a summary of last week’s top stories.

Energy price shock continues. Global gas prices soared amid concerns about supplies. In Europe, the prices jumped by 35%. The concerns were triggered after Iran struck energy facilities across the Gulf, including Qatar’s main liquefied natural gas complex, in retaliation for an attack on its refinery on Wednesday.

Qatar said that the Ras Laffan complex, home to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas facility, suffered extensive damage, representing 17% of the country’s exports. Iran also hit oil and gas installations in the United Arab Emirates.

Twelve Arab and Islamic countries said that the Iranian strikes cannot be justified under any pretext and called on Tehran to immediately end the attacks.

Global crude oil prices remained above the $100 per barrel-mark as Iran continued to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Contentious iftar on Ganga. Fourteen Muslims were arrested in Varanasi for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus after they organised an iftar party on a boat in the river Ganga and ate chicken biryani. The complainant, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, alleged that they threw meat leftovers in the river, which holds religious significance for Hindus.

The men were arrested after a video showing them holding the party on the boat on Monday was widely shared on social media. They were booked for defiling a place of worship, deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings and promoting enmity between groups.

Ashoka professor will not be prosecuted. The Haryana government told the Supreme Court that it will not grant sanction to prosecute Ashoka University Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad in a case related to his comments about the press briefings on Operation Sindoor. A bench then quashed the criminal proceedings against Mahmudabad, but cautioned him to act “prudently” in the future.

The state described its decision as “one-time magnanimity”.

Mahmudabad had been booked in May for a social media post highlighting the apparent irony of Hindutva commentators praising Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, who had represented the Indian Army during the press briefings. He was arrested on May 18, but was granted bail three days later.

Also on Scroll last week

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