Latest news with #emotionalSupport
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Emotional Support Kangaroo' Video Goes Viral—But It's Completely Fake
The viral "emotional support kangaroo" posted by Infinite Unreality Infinite Unreality/Instagram You might have seen an unusual sight on your social media timeline lately—a clip of a woman trying to board a plane with her 'emotional support kangaroo,' arguing passionately with a stewardess. The clip ends with the camera zooming into the kangaroo's face, sparking questions. Who gave it an airplane ticket? Why isn't it eating the ticket? Are emotional support kangaroos a thing now? Of course, the video is fake—in fact, it's completely AI-generated. The kangaroo clip was originally posted on Instagram by a visual effects artist known as 'Infinite Unreality.' This account regularly posts surreal AI-generated videos, most of them featuring Infinite Unreality's logo, the infinity symbol, which can also be spotted in the kangaroo clip. If there is a niche for AI-generated art, perhaps it makes sense to lean into the uncanny and unsettling, as this plays to the strengths of the technology. In the case of the emotional support kangaroo, the video proved just weird enough to gain attention, but not weird enough to be immediately flagged as AI. After being posted on Instagram, the clip was reposted by DramaAlert to X (Twitter), where it was viewed more than 58 million times, according to X's metrics. Many internet users assumed the clip was real, and it's not hard to see why. After all, the internet is constantly collecting the weirdest moments of the real world, and people are especially weird when it comes to their pets. Several users turned the close-up of the cute, confused-looking kangaroo into a meme, seemingly without noticing that the animal was fully AI-generated. Without inspecting too closely, the video seems like just another strange crumb of content on the timeline. If one ignores the fact that the kangaroo is holding a little plane ticket, it's not a particularly uncanny clip. The fact that videos on X are automatically muted helped launch this particular clip into virality, as the sound quickly exposes the artifice—the two women in the clip are speaking in a nonsensical language. This appears to be intentional on the part of the video's creator, as today's video-generating tools are capable of generating decent audio that roughly matches the visual output. What's really striking about the AI-generated emotional support kangaroo is how easily it slips into the ambient noise of the internet, just another one of those silly stories we all constantly see on our timelines. Previously, I wrote about how Google's new video-generating tool, Veo 3, had attained photorealism, measured by the ability to generate a convincing clip of Will Smith eating spaghetti. It used to be fairly easy to spot AI-generated content, and if you look carefully, many of the clues are still there. The more Veo 3 clips one encounters, the easier it is to see the uncanny movements and oddities. Overall, however, the clues have greatly diminished, and in some of the clips, they just aren't there at all. A boundary has been crossed, and the ability to generate a short video clip that is indistinguishable from real footage is now possible. Just like how the viral, AI-generated Balenciaga Pope ushered in a new era of AI-generated imagery that now swamps the internet, the emotional support kangaroo is the first viral video created by AI. It's hard to predict where things go from here—issues such as disinformation, non-consensual pornography and scams are almost certainly going to get much worse—but there's no way to tell how social media will be altered by the ability to create convincing footage from nothing. The internet is surely going to become stranger, even more detached from reality than it already is—the emotional support kangaroo is just the beginning.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Yahoo
Mom of Missing Teen Is in 'Hell' After 17-Year-Old Vanished on Trip to Visit a Friend
The mother of missing 17-year-old Pheobe Bishop has shared an emotional post as the search for her daughter entered day 11 on Monday, May 26 The teenager hasn't been seen or heard from since being taken to Airport Drive in Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, on May 15 to catch a flight "The tears come, the anger and frustrations come and most of all our hearts are shattering more and more each day," Pheobe's mom, Kylie Johnson, wrote in a Facebook postThe mother of a missing 17-year-old girl who vanished 11 days ago after failing to check in for a flight has shared a heartbreaking message as the search continues to find her daughter. Pheobe Bishop hasn't been seen or heard from since being taken to Airport Drive in Bundaberg in Queensland, Australia, on May 15 at around 8:30 a.m. local time, Queensland Police said in a Monday, May 19 news release. Queensland Police Detective Acting Inspector, Ryan Thompson, previously said that Pheobe had been dropped off near the airport by "associates" but didn't enter the terminal building, per the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), adding that she "had a flight booked to Brisbane and then on to WA [Western Australia] to visit a friend." On Monday, May 26, Pheobe's mom, Kylie Johnson, shared another emotional update on Facebook, writing alongside multiple photos of the teen, "As we enter day 11 of Pheobe still not being home our numbness to our tears, to our hearts breaking and this hell is heavy." "Not knowing what to say, what to do or even how to continue to live in this cyclone of uncertainty," she continued. "The tears come, the anger and frustrations come and most of all our hearts are shattering more and more each Day. Your little man/brother asked yesterday 'Why won't Phee take our calls? She always takes our calls!' " Johnson added in the post. She concluded, "Mate I wish I knew but we have to believe that the police and the lights that our amazing community are leaving on will going to bring her home to us." The message came as Queensland Police shared another update amid the ongoing search on Monday after they confirmed officers had been searching "bushland and waterways in the Good Night Scrub National Park" in a post on Friday. According to the ABC, the national park is more than an hour southwest of Bundaberg. Monday's update stated that officers were still focusing on searching the national park, plus the Gin Gin areas. A previous police post said that Pheobe had been living in a Gin Gin property, which has been declared a crime scene, prior to her disappearance. Police previously confirmed that a grey Hyundai ix35 was also an "active" crime scene. Detective Thompson said last week that Pheobe had been living at the residence for a while, stating, "It is not a direct family member that she resides with ... I believe there were currently two people that she was living with," the ABC reported. Police said in Monday's release that "specialist police, including the Dog Squad," were "working alongside aerial assets and the SES [Queensland State Emergency Service]" amid the search. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. "Some items, believed to be linked to the investigation, have been located during the search and have been seized for forensic examination," the release stated. "Police have now expanded the search area and have renewed their appeal for information after recent investigations show some evidence may have been moved from the Good Night Scrub area, prior to police arrival," the post included. Pheobe is described as approximately 180cm [around 5 feet, 9 inches], with a pale complexion, long dyed red hair and hazel eyes, police have confirmed. Read the original article on People
CTV News
25-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
Montrealers struggle to keep pets as costs climb
Ania says her dog Rory is her best friend and emotional support — but caring for him doesn't come cheap.
CBC
16-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Emotional support pig gets emotional support chicken at B.C. wildlife sanctuary
Social Sharing A former emotional support pig has been getting his own emotional support from a chicken who is helping him adapt to a new life at a B.C. wildlife rescue. Truffles arrived at the New Beginnings Animal Sanctuary in Summerland, B.C., after being taken in by the B.C. SPCA earlier this year. The 10-year-old pig had previously been an emotional support animal for a family who had to move and could not take him with them, according to New Beginnings' president Jane Long-Haggerty, who says it was "super exciting" to be able to provide him with a permanent home. But when he arrived at the sanctuary, he was fairly shy since he wasn't used to being around a lot of other animals, she said. "He kind of just went to a little corner," she said, adding that he shooed away other animals who tried to approach him. But there was one exception: a recently rescued chicken named Little Red who started sharing a meal with Truffles. "She was the only one that he didn't shoo away, and he really, really, really likes her," Long-Haggerty said. "Now they sleep together, they lie in the sun, they eat, they're together most of the time. It's really cute." Long-Haggerty said while it's not unusual for chickens and pigs to cohabitate and get along, it is unusual for two of them to form such a close bond with each other, with Little Red hopping on Truffles' back to groom him and sometimes get rides. "It's like they knew each other," she said. Truffles on a weight loss journey Truffles' story was already well-known in some quarters after coming into the SPCA in April. According to Long-Haggerty, he had briefly been in the care of another family who didn't know how to properly care for him, and he had ballooned in size to more than 300 pounds — overweight and in need of a diet. "Truffles has a history of not eating his veggies, but is starting to find certain healthy foods that he likes," the SPCA said on his adoption page. They also noted his history as an emotional support animal, saying that he was sure to be a "sweet and loving friend" to whoever took him in. What they likely didn't expect was that friend would be a chicken more than 10 times smaller than him. "When you see him, all the pigs are kind of in one corner and he's in another corner of the barn with his chicken," Long-Haggerty said. "He doesn't mind the goats being around every once in a while, but it's definitely he just wants his chicken friend." She said he is eating a more suitable diet and engaging in regular exercise, and is also extremely friendly with people, so the sanctuary is optimistic he will reach his target weight again. And she hopes the story will offer lessons to people, too, about the importance of understanding how to care for pets before you adopt them and about the power of friendship.
Times
13-05-2025
- Health
- Times
OK, I confess. My dog's paws smell of ‘stagnant Mini Cheddars', and I love them
Do we need yet another study to tell us that dogs can be 'more comforting than spouses' despite having bad breath, embarrassing libidos and spectacular flatulence (which, to be fair, so do a great many spouses)? No, we do not. There seems to be a new survey saying precisely this every month. There surely must be a financial incentive behind it because the latest is a whopper, conducted across 20 countries involving more than 30,000 people and finding that dogs and indeed cats outrank not only husbands and wives but also children, friends and extended family as emotional support crutches. I'm sure it is pure coincidence that it was conducted by a pet food company that would benefit enormously if everyone got a pet. But
