A Tragedy That Never Happened

I'd like to introduce you to Jessica Radcliffe, an orca trainer at SeaWorld... but I can't, because she doesn't exist.

The fictitious Ms. Radcliffe is the subject of an AI video that was going viral a few months ago, purporting to show the trainer being brutally killed by orcas in front of an entire stadium of viewers.   A lot of folks have been taken in by the video and are convinced of its accuracy - though if you look at it, and the accompanying images, it's easy to see things aren't quite right.  Like the picture above, for instance - she's standing up, in the water, with two orcas right next to her.  Are her legs really twenty feet long?  Are the orcas stumped off below the surface with no tails?  Is she standing on a very thin podium in the middle of the tank?

You know what, never mind.  It's one of the least egregious sins of this stupid video.

Lies on the internet are nothing new; they're as old as the internet itself.  What does bother me is that they're starting to get smoother, more polished, more plausible.  In cases like this, they draw on real events, then exaggerate and dramatize them to make a point.  Often, the people who tell these lies convince themselves that either its harmless or that they are serving some sort of greater good by doing so (in this case, I suppose, by opposing the keeping of orcas in SeaWorld).

There was a news clip I saw recently of podcaster Joe Rogan mocking a video that was supposedly of Minnesota governor and former VP candidate Tim Walz, acting like an absolute fool.  The video was actually AI, but Rogan swallowed it, hook, line, and sinker.  When he was confronted with the proof that it was fake, he dismissed it by saying that it felt real, that he could easily believe Walz actually would behave in such a manner, so who cares if this specific video was fake?

Well, it does matter.  Truth matters, in animal care as in all areas.  When we decide to start cutting corners to get to the truth and simplify it, we often end up veering wildly off path from it.

If you see something on online, especially something sensationalist that seems to confirm what you already really want to believe already... try to confirm it.