Videos featuring animals saved by humans or displaying highly expressive behaviours are garnering millions of views on social media. It turns out that they are entirely generated by AI. Scientists warn that these fake animal images pose significant risks.
A wolf who entrusts her cubs to a woman, a baby tiger playing with a kitten, or a seal saved by a mariner. More and more of these videos are circulating on social media. In the comments section, while some users are quick to identify the images as AI-generated, others remain caught up in their emotions, seemingly unaware of the fabrication.
Evoking emotion is precisely the goal of these videos. To that end, they often ascribe human emotions and behaviours to animals. However, this can encourage people to forget that animals are wild and pose risks to humans and to the animals themselves. “It can result in people wanting to have their own pictures and videos taken with wild animals, and that can lead to what we would refer to as ‘selfish selfies’,” Chris Lewis, captivity research and policy manager at the Born Free Foundation, told our team.
Lewis said this trend is encouraging travellers to seek out direct contact with captive animals, which are often kept in dire conditions. It also contributes to the “commodification” of animals, reducing them to mere objects of entertainment. “That desirability can then lead to greater pressure on animals in the wild,” he told our team. “It can lead to not only wild animals being collected from the wild and trafficked to be kept as pets, but they can also be abused to produce content.”
In these videos, humans are seen as saviours helping grateful animals. Scientists say this narrative distracts attention from the real threats to animals: pollution, deforestation, and habitat destruction, all caused by human activity.
A threat to wildlife conservation
Researchers at the University of Cordoba in Spain warn of another consequence in a study: they show how these images reduce awareness of the urgency to protect endangered species. The constant presence of tigers, wolves or elephants on social media gives a false sense of abundance, even when these images are purely fictional. “It can create the false impression that they are more widespread than they truly are,” said Francisco S. Tortosa, a professor from the Department of Zoology of the University of Cordoba, and a co-author of the study. This can lead to fewer resources being allocated to animal protection.
For Tortosa, these videos are deepening an already significant sense of disconnection from nature.
“You cannot find all animals in all places. You have specific habitats for a specific species. But this reality is totally disturbed with these videos, where you can find animals in unexpected places. So some people perceive a totally confused reality. I think it's important to have knowledge. We don't protect things that we don't know.”
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