That ‘Spider’ on Mars? NASA Never Photographed It — AI Did
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Sol 3987
Fake Date Claimed
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13 Months
Off From the Real Date
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AI Detectors Agreed
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Medium
Fooled Index
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AI-GENERATED — The image claims to show a NASA discovery. Look at the shadows, and the rover casts none at all.
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In August 2026, an image began circulating online claiming to show a spider-shaped rock formation on Mars, supposedly photographed by NASA's Curiosity rover. The image included a caption noting it was taken on "Sol 3987," the mission's way of counting Martian days since the rover landed in 2012, an authentic-looking detail that lent the image credibility.
Searches for "Mars spider rock formation" on Google, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo turned up no reliable reports of any such discovery, and NASA never published anything matching the viral image. If Curiosity had genuinely photographed something like this, it would have made headlines. Curiosity did send back images on Sol 3987, but none of them show a spider-shaped formation.
Facebook independently flagged both posts of the image as "AI Content," its label for material carrying a digital signal, like Google or OpenAI's SynthID watermark, tied to an AI generation tool. Separately, Meta's own AI identification tool confirmed the image was made with its generative tools. The claimed date doesn't even hold up on its own terms: Sol 3987 actually corresponds to October 24, 2023, but the text on the image translated it as either September 11 or November 9, 2024, more than a year off, an error NASA would be extremely unlikely to make in its own records.
The shadows give it away visually, too. In the image, the "spider" rock formation casts a clear shadow, but the rover parked right next to it, under the same sunlight, casts none at all, exactly the kind of physically inconsistent lighting AI image generators still struggle to get right.
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No shadow under the rover. The rock formation casts a shadow in the image, but the rover beside it, lit by the same sun, casts none at all.
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The date is over a year off. The image claims Sol 3987 corresponds to a 2024 date; NASA's own records show that Martian day actually fell on October 24, 2023.
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Two separate tools flagged it. Facebook labeled the image "AI Content," and Meta's own AI identification tool confirmed it was made with generative AI.
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No credible outlet ever reported it. A "spider" formation photographed by Curiosity would have been major science news. No search turned up any legitimate report of the discovery.
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🚨 100% AI-Generated
NASA's Curiosity rover never photographed a spider-shaped rock formation on Mars. The image carries a fabricated Martian date that's over a year off from what it claims, mismatched shadows between the rock and the rover, and two separate AI-detection signals. It's an invented scene, not a real discovery.
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Tom Brady Threatened to Sue Over an AI Comedy Special He Never Filmed
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Comedians Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen built an hour-long AI-generated comedy special using an AI-crafted likeness of retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady, releasing it through their podcast "Dudesy" without ever asking his permission. Brady never appeared in the special or approved his likeness being used, and his lawyers sent the pair a cease-and-desist letter demanding they immediately remove all use of his "name, image, voice, persona, and likeness." The dispute reflects a fast-growing category of legal fights over AI-generated celebrity likenesses, distinct from older copyright cases, since it involves a real, living person's identity being recreated by AI without their consent, not just their creative work being copied.
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YOUR REALITY DETECTOR TOOLKIT |
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Today’s Skill: Check Whether Shadows Make Sense Together
Two objects lit by the same sun should cast shadows that agree with each other.
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Check whether shadows make sense together
In the fake Mars photo, one object cast a shadow and another right beside it didn't, under the same light. Mismatched shadows between two nearby objects are a reliable AI tell.
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Verify a claimed date against the real record
The image's Martian date was more than a year off from reality once checked against NASA's own numbers. Any date attached to a dramatic claim is worth double-checking against the source it claims to come from.
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Ask if the person actually agreed to appear
Tom Brady never filmed the comedy special that used his image. If a celebrity supposedly said or did something surprising, check whether they've addressed it directly before assuming it's real.
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