The viral emotional support kangaroo is an AI creation

You might've seen those viral images and videos of the emotional support kangaroo in an airport. Hopefully, you at least wondered if the video was AI-generated. Or maybe you were fooled by a quick scroll. We're here to tell that, yes, the viral emotional support kangaroo was indeed AI-generated.

Here is the video in question.

How do we know it's AI? First, it's probably best to sit back and consider the video's content. A non-domesticated creature is acting as a service animal, calmly holding a boarding pass in its hands and staring at the camera like Jim Halpert from The Office. Brother, that is not real. Second, the original was posted to the Instagram account @InfiniteUnreality, which posts AI-generated and VFX content.

That didn't stop the video from being spread all across the internet. Most notably, it was posted by the X account @DramaAlert, where it has racked up 73 million views. The responses online were a mix of people joyfully reposting, wondering what was going on at that airport, and lots of jokes. To be fair, a number of people also pointed out that the video was AI-generated. Community Notes on X eventually noted that it was AI-generated as well.

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Needless to say, to those who were duped, AI-generated video is getting much better, even if the scenario itself — an emotional support kangaroo — was hard to believe. So, as always in the age of AI, be careful out there for fakes.