Image of giant octopus ‘spotted in Bali’ is AI-generated
Image does not show a giant octopus or squid that washed up on a Bali beach
CLAIM
Images posted across social media purported to show a giant octopus washed up on a beach in Bali, Indonesia.
BACKGROUND
A series of images started to pop up across social media platforms earlier in June purporting to show a giant octopus washed up on a beach on the island of Bali.
The pictures, which showed a huge octopus on a beach with people milling around looking at it, were shared across Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram.
Some versions of the posts had the same caption, like this from a Filipino news page and this from a Filipino viral news aggregator on Facebook, captioned: “A Giant Octopus was spotted in Bali, Indonesia. Could it be true?”
Over on X, the post was again shared widely. This version, from an Elon Musk parody page that also aggregates viral content, was captioned: “The largest recovered giant squids and colossal squids have measured nearly 13 metres (about 43 feet) long, but there are unconfirmed reports of individuals more than 20 metres (more than 65 feet) in length.”
METHOD
A reverse image search brought us to multiple instances of these images being used by content aggregator accounts.
The earliest version we could find online was this, an Instagram video from June 1 containing stills of the same octopus on the beach.
It was posted to a page called @best_of_ai, which collates AI-generated images and frequently features AI images of giant sea creatures, including similar posts previously showing giant octopi on beaches. The uploader describes themselves as a ‘Digital Creative’ who experiments with AI storytelling. The post was published with a long caption containing a fictional story about the creature.
The post from June 1 had gone viral, racking up more than 1.8 million likes and prompting the subsequent posts on other platforms which were published several days later.
From this analysis, we can conclude that the images are AI-generated and do not show a real giant octopus on a beach in Bali.
Furthermore, there was no news coverage about the huge sea creature, which would have garnered some attention had it really washed ashore.
RATING
The images are AI-generated and do not show a giant octopus or squid that washed up on a Bali beach.
SOURCES
Facebook.com. (2024). Giant Octopus nakit-an sa Bali, Indonesia…. – Pagadian News Daily. [online] [Accessed 14 Jun. 2024].
Facebook.com. (2023). Usa ka Giant Octopus nakit-an sa Bali,… – Chicken State News. [online] [Accessed 14 Jun. 2024].
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at: The largest recovered giant squids and colossal squids… [Accessed 14 Jun. 2024].
Instagram. (2020). Digital Creative on Instagram: ‘This is a fictional story The Mourning of the Abyssal Titans…’. [online] [Accessed 14 Jun. 2024].