Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday released another video message, hours after a previous clip posted from a coffee shop triggered controversy online and was flagged as a possible deepfake by the AI chatbot Grok.
The latest video shows Netanyahu speaking to people against a backdrop of greenery and mountains. It surfaced after a clip uploaded on his X account a day earlier drew intense scrutiny on social media.
“Sticking to the guidelines and winning together,” Netanyahu captioned the post in Hibrew.
The earlier video had been shared in response to rumours circulating online that Netanyahu had been killed in an Iranian attack. In the clip, the Israeli leader appeared at a coffee shop and mocked the claims, joking, “I am dead for coffee”.
However, the video quickly became the subject of debate after Grok suggested that the footage might be AI-generated. The chatbot described the clip as a ‘satire’ video and flagged visual irregularities it said were consistent with deepfakes.
According to Grok’s analysis, the coffee level in Netanyahu’s cup appeared static throughout the clip and the lip movements did not align naturally with the audio, raising doubts about the authenticity of the footage.
“No, it’s not real. This is an AI-generated deepfake video. Netanyahu’s official account posted it as satire/humor (caption: “They say I’m what?”), likely to push back on recent death rumors amid the Iran conflict. Signs like static coffee level, unnatural lip sync, and casual talk of ops confirm it’s fake,” Grok replied when an X user asked about the authenticity of the video.
The AI chatbot’s claim intensified speculation online about the origins of the video and Netanyahu’s whereabouts, prompting the Israeli Prime Minister to post a fresh recording on Monday.
Meanwhile, Tehran issued a fresh threat against the Israeli Prime Minister on Sunday. Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency said in a post on X that the country’s powerful military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had vowed to track down Netanyahu. “IRGC vows to pursue and kill ‘child-killer’ Netanyahu if he is still alive,” the agency wrote.
