A video shared thousands of times on Facebook appears to show Elon Musk saying that billions of people could die by 2030 due to water shortages.
This is false. The audio in the clip is fake. It was made using artificial intelligence (AI), using an interview Mr Musk gave to Forbes in May that made no mention of water shortages.
One Facebook post shared the video with overlaid text saying “Elon Musk Says 1 Billion People Could Die In 2027”. In the clip, Mr Musk appears to say something “is using up all of our water which ultimately kills billions by 2030”. Longer versions circulating online show Mr Musk supposedly saying it is “AI” that will use up the water.
But Mr Musk did not say this in the original. The footage comes from an interview from May, during which Mr Musk discussed a lawsuit he had filed against OpenAI that had just been tossed out by a California court.
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How do we know the audio was generated by AI?
The video was probably made using a voice clone of Mr Musk, paired with a lip syncing AI tool that makes it look like Elon Musk is talking about water shortages. A similar technique was used in another deepfake we recently checked of Mark Zuckerberg.
The edited clip shared on social media features several tell-tale signs that the audio is fake. A faint music track has been added to the clip, masking its inconsistencies, similar to the fake video of Mark Zuckerberg. The background resonance also differs from Forbes’ interview.
After alleged warnings about water shortages, the manipulated video ends with Mr Musk saying: “But then again if people are exposed today to at least a few thousand worth of USWR, they’ll be totally fine”. USWR refers to the United States Water Reserve—a type of crypto asset, rather than a water infrastructure project. Another Facebook post sharing the video encourages viewers to purchase USWR cryptocurrency.
Mr Musk did not discuss water shortages, nor did he promote this cryptocurrency in the original interview.
Before sharing content like this online, it’s important to consider whether it is real or not. Our Full Fact toolkit can help you to spot AI-generated audio, images and deepfake videos.
