The Mermaid's Truth

The Mermaid's Truth is a one-minute short by Civitai user Ponz15, posted in July 2024. The author's post says it's an AI-generated faux documentary: a colossal 10-meter mermaid skeleton, with giant bones and a massive tail fin, is found off the coast of Okinawa, in footage made to look like real news. The author says the mermaid may be a fabrication, but the questions it raises are real: in a time when every image and video has to be questioned, what can we believe? The film uses AI to fake a convincing news story in order to warn viewers about convincing fake news.

Who it's for:viewers interested in AI fakes and media literacy, and teachers or parents who want to talk about how seeing is no longer believing.

Before you watch: free to watch on Civitai. Civitai is an AI image community, so the page may show other users' work of varying content. The discovery is entirely fictional, as the author states in the post, but its news style could fool someone who sees the footage on its own. It shows giant skeletal remains. No reuse rights are granted.

Based on the author's Civitai post. Watch the film itself for the full picture.