Twist after ‘support kangaroo' goes viral

News.com.au

2 days ago

A wildly viral video of a kangaroo holding a boarding pass on a plane has left people scratching their heads.
The clip, which has done the rounds on social media this week, shows a woman furiously arguing with a flight attendant while a kangaroo in a harness innocently watches on, clutching its own boarding pass.
The woman furiously waves her hands in the air as the flight attendant points her finger towards the roo, while they speak an unidentified language.
Millions of views, thousands of comments and a wave of 'only in Australia' memes later, the video was hailed as yet another example of airline drama in the golden age of in-flight absurdity.
But – sorry to be the bearer of bad news – it's all fake.
The original clip, captioned 'No kangaroo on the plane', gathered over 1 million likes on Instagram – and people were not happy.
'He has a ticket he paid for! Let him in!' said one.
'He behaves better than my kids,' laughed another.
'This is the saddest thing I've ever seen,' said a third.
'There needs to be rules against discriminating against a paying customer just because of their species,' said a fourth.
Others were quick to catch on, slamming the AI-generated footage.
'How can no one tell this is AI?' questioned one viewer.
'You guys have your boomer glasses on,' mocked another.
'AI is getting scary,' said a third.
'How are people falling for the kangaroo video. I'm so serious. Yeah it looks eerily real but in what world does a kangaroo just pass through all the airport checks and is only stopped at the literal airplane door,' questioned another.
Others were shocked they fell for it in the first place.
'Fell for my first AI video and I feel sick to my core…. like what was I thinking … that kangaroo was holding a boarding pass,' said one viewer.
People have now confirmed the video is indeed fake, thanks to the help of internet sleuths and X's AI assistant 'Grok' who flagged the video as AI-generated on the platform.
The video is just the latest example of AI-generated content fooling even the most sceptical of viewers, with recent fakes ranging from natural disaster clips to fake images of celebrities.
Just earlier this year, millions were fooled over AI images of Katy Perry at the Met Gala for the second year in a row.
No matter your feelings about artificial intelligence, there is no denying that it is becoming increasingly embedded within people's daily lives.
A recent study by the University of Melbourne showed that just 30 per cent of Australians believe the benefits of AI outweigh the risks, ranking us the lowest among all. additionally, 55 per cent say they realise the benefits, compared to 73 per cent globally.
Almost 80 per cent of Australians were concerned about the negative outcomes of AI use and 37 per cent said they have personally experienced to observed those negative outcomes.