Kate Middleton Fake Video Allegations Go Viral

Kate Middleton's emotional video message revealing she has been undergoing treatment for cancer has sparked new AI conspiracy theories on social media.

The Princess of Wales was hailed by many for her bravery in describing her struggle to tell her children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis about her diagnosis.

Some, including actress Blake Lively, have apologized for joining in a viral trend that for weeks suggested Kate was "missing."

However, people are saying that artificial intelligence was used to produce the lengthy video message, despite it having been recorded by BBC Studios and not by royal aides.

Some pointed out, for example, that she is wearing a similar sweater in a 2016 video for mental health campaign Heads Together.

In reality though, the two sweaters are different, as the sleeves were shorter in the charity video. Some pointed out the blue and white top seen on Friday in fact looked closer to another she wore in November 2023, though it remains unclear why wearing the same sweater twice would make the video a fake.

The saga serves as a grim warning of what may be to come in an AI future in which people simply choose not to believe what they see online and it becomes increasingly difficult to produce evidence in support of factual material.

One Twitter user wrote: "Two different AI detecting softwares from two separate sources. It is AI. Birdsong on a loop. Grass and flowers never move. Looks warm and green in England for this time of year. lol."

The post was viewed 1.2 million times and liked 4.6k times. Only those who bothered to click through to the poster's profile will have seen that it reads: "OFFICIAL TWITTER PAGE OF THE ILLUMINATI WHISTLEBLOWER, EXPOSING THE NWO, SECRET CLONING, VRILL LIZARDS & THEIR HUMAN HOSTS LIVING AMONG US."

And in fact, a scan of the footage of Kate by deepware, an AI and deep fake detector, found "no deepfake detected."

It is also worth noting that February was the warmest on record in Britain and the past week has been sunny in the south east of England, while the yellow flowers visible in the background also match reality as daffodils are currently out in the U.K.

Some also suggested the ring Kate was wearing disappears part way through the video for a couple of seconds, though her hands were moving at the time, meaning they simply blurred.

One Twitter user noted: "Many posts are now saying that Kate's latest video is AI & that her ring briefly disappears @ mark 1:18. I took a look... It doesn't. See 1st clip below. Learn what motion blur is to understand what's going on."

Pop culture commentators Tom and Lorenzo wrote on Twitter: "I'm reading tweets that the royal comms team, who couldn't even run a family snap through a filter without causing an international incident, produced an AI video more advanced than anyone has ever seen, that has fooled every single media outlet in the world. Go outside, everyone."

Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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