Two people actually did climb to the top of the Empire State Building this month. That part is real. They scaled the spire, unfurled a banner, and got arrested for it. I watched the ABC News clip myself.

Then my feed showed me the same climb saying five different things. One banner called Trump a pedophile. Another said “Trans women are men.” A third went after Michelle Obama. Same building, same climbers, totally different flags — because AI had grabbed a real moment and rewritten it for whichever crowd was watching. So I looked into it. Here’s what I found.

TODAY’S REALITY CHECK

The Empire State Building Climb Was Real — But AI Gave It a Dozen Fake Banners

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One climb

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Two masked climbers on the Empire State Building spire holding a banner that AI redrew a dozen different ways

REAL EVENT, FAKE FLAGS — Two climbers really did unfurl a banner up here. Every inflammatory version of that banner was generated or edited with AI.  Source

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On July 1, 2026, two climbers scaled the Empire State Building and unfurled a banner from its spire. That part genuinely happened. ABC News reported it, and the two — Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, the daredevil couple featured in the 2024 documentary “Skywalkers: A Love Story” — were arrested and charged with felony reckless endangerment and burglary.

Their real banner read, “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.” Not exactly a headline-grabber. So within hours, people online gave it an upgrade — several, actually.

One X post showed the banner reading “Donald Trump is a pedophile.” A video from another account had it saying “Trans women are men.” A third claimed “Michelle Obama is a man!” A fourth swapped in “Only traitors help invaders,” edited directly on top of the real ABC News footage. There was even a version with a grinning granny in pink dangling off the spire, posted by an account that literally has “.ai” in its name.

The fact-checkers at Lead Stories ran the images and clips through detection tools. OpenAI’s own Verify tool flagged the “pedophile” image as OpenAI-generated. The Hive Moderation detector scored the “Trans women are men” video at 99.6% AI. The “Michelle Obama” clip carried Google Gemini’s own “Made with AI” label right on the post. And a side-by-side with the original ABC News video showed exactly where the real banner text had been painted over.
🚩

One Climb, Five Messages The same stunt showed up with at least five completely different banners. A real banner only says one thing.
📰

The Real Banner Is on Record ABC News posted the actual footage: the banner reads “When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.”
🧠

Detection Tools Agreed OpenAI’s Verify tool flagged one image as its own; Hive Moderation scored a video 99.6% AI-generated.
🏷

The Platform Labeled It The “Michelle Obama” version carried Google Gemini’s “Made with AI” tag right on the post itself.
REAL EVENT, FAKE FLAGS

🚨 The Stunt Happened. The Outrage Was Manufactured.

Two climbers really did scale the Empire State Building and unfurl a banner about love. Every version with a shocking political message — Trump, Obama, “invaders,” and the rest — was generated or edited with AI to bait a reaction. A real moment became a blank canvas for fakes.

WHAT ELSE GOT FLAGGED

A Pack of Furries “Chased” a Patriot Front Member on Live TV That Never Aired
FAKE
A fake ABC7 breaking-news broadcast showing furries chasing a Patriot Front member through downtown D.C.

Source

A clip dressed up as an ABC7 “LIVE” broadcast showed costumed furries sprinting after a Patriot Front member through downtown Washington, D.C., complete with a news chyron and a scrolling ticker. It racked up shares as “this wins the internet today.” It didn’t happen. The video came from an account called @strangeai, whose own bio says it makes “sketches, parodies & unreal videos made with AI.” The giveaways: the ticker text is garbled nonsense, and about four seconds in, one of the security guards briefly splits into two people.

A Swimsuit “Cheese-Rolling Champion” Glided Down a Hill That Never Existed
FAKE
A woman in a swimsuit gliding down a hillside in a cheese-rolling race that never happened, past a garbled sign

Source

A video captioned “She won the cheese” showed a woman in a swimsuit gracefully running down a hillside to win a cheese-rolling race. The Hive Moderation detector scored it 100% AI-generated. The tells are everywhere: the sign at the top of the hill reads “COEKMODNT,” the cheese wheel rolls too smoothly to be real, and she glides rather than stumbles. Britain’s actual Cooper’s Hill cheese roll ran back in May — the women’s winner, Elise Alix Heugas, tumbled down most of the hill in a mouse costume, not a swimsuit.

YOUR REALITY DETECTOR TOOLKIT

Today’s Skill: When a Real Event Becomes a Canvas for Fakes

The trickiest fakes aren’t invented from scratch — they’re bolted onto something that really happened.

01

If the Same Event Says Different Things, Something’s Off

The Empire State climb appeared with five different banners. When one event has multiple contradictory versions floating around, most of them — maybe all — are edited. Find the one detail everyone disagrees on, and check that.

02

Go Find the Original Footage

A real news outlet covered the actual climb. Search the event on Google News and compare the viral clip to the original report. The real banner was about love; the ABC News video proved it, and the side-by-side exposed exactly where the text was swapped.

03

Read the Small Text — It’s Where AI Breaks

AI still fumbles lettering. The cheese-roll sign said “COEKMODNT” and the fake news ticker was pure gibberish. Zoom in on signs, chyrons, and tickers — garbled text is one of the fastest tells there is.

“Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.”

— Edgar Allan Poe

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