‘Gobsmacking’: Media Industry Observers Call Out Fox News’s Website for Getting Duped By AI-Generated Video, Then Attempting to Sweep it Under the Rug

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Fox News’s website is drawing heat from media industry observers for getting duped by an AI-generated video — and then failing to take sufficient accountability for the error.

In a piece published Friday to Foxnews.com, writer Alba Cuebas-Fantauzzi posted about SNAP beneficiaries threatening to loot stores amid the government shutdown. The piece, originally headlined “SNAP Beneficiaries Threaten to Ransack Stores Over Government Shutdown,” quoted Black women claiming to be SNAP recipients complaining about the cutoff of benefits due to the shutdown.

“I have seven different baby daddies and none of ‘em no good for me,” one purported SNAP recipient said.

The site was promptly called out for running with a phony video. In a 7-minute video titled “Fox News Got Duped by AI—and Lied About It,” The Bulwark’s Tim Miller trashed the site for “horrific news judgment” in falling for the fake footage.

“Fox News got fooled by a series of racist AI videos purporting to be Black women complaining about losing their SNAP benefits, and they reported those ‘complaints’ made computers pretending to be humans as if they were real news,” Miller said. “Yikes.”

After getting called out, the headline of the post was amended to read, “AI videos of SNAP beneficiaries complaining about cuts go viral.” The change was accompanied by a brief editor’s note at the bottom.

“This article previously reported on some videos that appear to have been generated by AI without noting that,” the note read. “This has been corrected.”

CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski posted screenshots on X showing the original and amended headlines side-by-side.

“Not sure if I’ve seen anything like this before — Fox fell for an AI video and basically rewrote their whole story when called out,” Kaczynski wrote.

CNN’s Brian Stelter delivered a similar condemnation in his Reliable Sources newsletter on Sunday.

“It’s gobsmacking,” Stelter wrote. “So is the editor’s note now tacked to the bottom.”

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