FAKE TESLA NEWS!!!!
How an AI Fake News Video Almost Fooled Me
And Why AI is Getting Dangerous
I have a VERY SCARY story to share with you: AI is getting dangerously scary!!!! I have to let you know, I am beyond embarrassed by this story. In 18 years of blogging, I don't recall EVER having or needing to write a redaction, so this is a first for me.
Two days ago I noticed an interesting YouTube video with a sensational title so I watched it and thought it was convincing. I didn't bother fact-checking it, as it seemed so well researched to me. I published an article titled “How California Tried and Failed to Destroy Tesla’s Fremont Factory.”
It was based almost entirely on a YouTube video narrated by an attractive “reporter” named Sophia Miller claiming Fremont was shutting down.
I fell for this fake news and assumed it was breaking news, that I had not heard about yet, and thus, I wanted to get the story out ASAP. Grok even proofread the piece for me, and didn't bother pointing out it was highly inaccurate FAKE NEWS...
I turns out Sophia Miller doesn’t exist. She’s 100% AI-generated. The channel pumps out synthetic “news” videos daily, many outright false or wildly exaggerated.
Why does YouTube allow this channel to publish FAKE AI News that is so misleading, without making the channel divulge up from that it is AI? What is the motive of the channel to produce such fake news? My best guess is their strategy is to combine real news with fake news that it highly sensationalized and exaggerated as a form of clickbait, so they can make money off of YouTube monetization.
For the record, the Tesla Fremont factory is not closing—it’s running full-tilt, building refreshed Model 3s and starting Optimus robot production.
I deleted the article the moment I realized, I had been fooled.
This isn’t just embarrassing; it’s a warning.
In 2026, AI can now create:
-Photorealistic video faces that never age or blink wrong.
-Perfect American-accent voice clones.
-Convincing scripts laced with just enough truth to pass basic fact-checks.
-One fake video + one careless writer = instant misinformation spread to thousands.
We’re past the era where you can trust a video because “it looks or seems real.”
Lesson I learned the hard way: always search the presenter’s name, reverse-image the thumbnail, and verify claims with primary sources (Tesla.com, SEC filings, local reporting) before hitting publish.
I got played by pixels. Don’t let it happen to you.
Stay skeptical out there.
In case you are interested, the way I figured out it was fake news is from watching this excellent YouTube video from Will @ TeslaJigsaw, which is an excellent Tesla YouTube channel:
I watched one of these but whilst it appeared to be a good video I could not stop looking at her face and in particular her hair. no matter how many of these video's you watch her face, clothing and especially her hair remain identical.
ReplyDeleteSo I then went on to watch other video's up-loaded onto "her" Youtube Channel.
Yes AI is getting better but there is no human on earth that can have identical facial, dress and especially hair that remains the same over multiple video's and differing days.