An image purportedly showing Norwegian football star Erling Haaland getting startled after seeing his own reflection in a mirror while dining at a restaurant has gone viral on social media. The clip is being widely shared with users claiming it captures the striker’s humorous reaction after mistaking his reflection for someone else.
The above post can be seen here. (Archive)
NM VERIFIED
NewsMobile verified the claim and found that the video is AI-generated.
The NM team initiated its verification by thoroughly scanning the official social media handles of Norwegian football star Erling Haaland. However, no trace of the viral video was found on any of his verified accounts.
Moving forward, we conducted an extensive search across credible news platforms but could not find the viral clip published or reported by any reliable media organisation. The complete absence of the video from credible sources raised significant red flags about its authenticity.
On closely examining the viral clip, the NM team noticed several visual inconsistencies commonly associated with AI-manipulated videos. For instance, Erling Haaland’s facial expressions, eating movements, and overall body animation appeared unnatural and inconsistent with genuine footage.
Further investigation led us to a comparison video circulating on a Chinese media handle, which showed a Chinese man eating in an almost identical manner. The comparison strongly suggests that the original footage featured the Chinese man and that AI face-swapping technology was later used to replace him with Erling Haaland, making it appear as though he was the person in the video.
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For further confirmation, the NM team also ran the viral video through the AI detection tool Detect Video AI, which found that the video has a high probability of being AI-generated.
Hence, it is evident that the viral video claiming to show Erling Haaland getting startled after seeing his reflection in a mirror while eating at a restaurant is AI-generated.
