At the turn of February-March 2025, a video diverged on the network, on which portraits of the President of Ukraine in the prison robe created by the neural network Ilona Mask allegedly showed on the main square of New York. We checked whether this video was true.
On February 28, 2025, a video began to be distributed in Telegram channels, which show a digital billboard on Times Square. The billboard, in turn, demonstrates a series of images of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky in a prison robe and in the relevant interiors - from the camera to the courtroom. The pictures allegedly generated, at the request of the “future of Zelensky,” the Grok neural network, which belongs to Ilon Mask, a close associate of US President Donald Trump. In the upper right corner of the video, the logo of The New York Times is noticeable.
They shared this news Lenta.ru, URA.RU, News.ru, "Vesti.ru", "Military Review","Truth.ru"And other Russian media. According to the TGSTAT service, the publications on this subject in Telegram collected almost 3 million views at the time of writing this analysis. Among the most popular - posts in channels "Technoker"(290,000 views),"Zlaya Pruf"(250,000),"Colonelcassad"(205 000) and"#Montyan!"(201 000). In addition, the video spread to the platforms "VKontakte","Picabu","Classmates" Facebook And X.
February 28 Zelensky Arrived to Washington for negotiations with Trump about access The United States to Ukrainian natural resources, including rare earth metals. According to many Telegram channels, it is on the day of the visit of the Ukrainian president to the White House, ending The scandal, on Times Square showed the images generated by GROK.
The 20-second video shows a digital billboard for Times Square, which shows a query line GROK -Chat Bota based on artificial intelligence developed by Xai Ilona Mask. In the roller, the GROK is introduced into the line, generate an image that predicts the future of Zelensky. ” In response, the neural network provides a slide show of the five images of the Ukrainian president in a prison robe on the bench, in the cell and behind bars. The video ends with animation with the logo and the slogan "Grok knows better." It could be assumed that this is the slogan of the advertising campaign of the neural network, but the search for this phrase in Google did not give any results.
In the upper right corner of the viral video, the New York Times logo is noticeable. "Verified" failed to find this video either at site publications, neither in his official accounts in YouTube, Tiktok, Facebook, X And Instagram. This newspaper, as well as other large and authoritative American media did not report about GROK advertising with Zelensky in a prison robe.
The reverse search on the frames of the video showed that the screen on which this advertisement was allegedly shown is indeed Placed On Times Square, in one of the most visited places in New York. Although tens of thousands of people pass by this billboard every day, it was not possible to find video recordings of the same advertising from another angle or at another time of the day. Spanish television channel RTVE He also studied records from round-the-clock surveillance cameras for Times Square for February 28, when this video was allegedly shown in the square, and did not find personnel with Zelensky.
Apparently, a video with a Times scver video was imposed on the GROK interface, as well as the New York Times logo, which was supposed to add a fake of authority. This scheme is not the first to use the creators of fake videos, which have been analyzed more than once. Many of these news were devoted to the screens on Times Square: supposedly there celebrated a decade of the annexation of Crimea, advertised contract service in Tatarstan and Surrounded Zelensky.
As for himself GROK Chat Bota, "Verified" tested his work. We introduced exactly the same Prompt with a request to generate an image that will show the future of Zelensky, and repeated this experiment four times. For each request, the neural network issued two portraits, slightly different from each other, but not one of them even remotely resembled those shown in a viral video.
The earliest publication that contains a viral video and which was discovered "verified" appeared on February 28 at 13:44 Moscow time in the Telegram channel "Avdeevka.ru"(6600 views), and then began to actively spread to other Russian resources.
Thus, a video about the GROK advertising with the image of Zelensky in a prison robe on Times Square is a fake created, apparently, with the help of installation.
Photo on the cover: social networks
Read on the topic:
- "Mirror of the week." Zn.ua asked Grok 3 about the skirmish of Trump and Zelensky: AI Mask showed where there were manipulations, pressure and playing on emotions
- Meduza. Neural networks can fight - and kill
- Putin is on the knee, the Pope's down jacket and Trump's arrest: how to recognize viral photos created by neural networks.
- Is it true that a program appeared on Times Square with a program with a heading “with Kiev is all over”?
- False authorities. How BBC has become a favorite brand for the creators of fake videos
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