AI-generated footage falsely linked to Ethiopian volcanic eruption
- Published on December 4, 2025 at 09:36
- 2 min read
- By AFP Thailand, AFP Middle East & North Africa
- Translation and adaptation Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE
A volcano in northeastern Ethiopia erupted for the first time in almost 12,000 years in November 2025, but a dramatic video of smoke and lava circulating online does not show the eruption. The clip was uploaded online several months prior in a post that labelled it as being AI-generated.
"The Hayli Gubbi volcano in Ethiopia's Afar region, dormant since the Holocene era, erupted again at 3:30pm Thailand time on November 23, 2025, spewing smoke and ash 14 kilometres (nine miles) into the sky," reads a Thai-language X post published on November 27.
The post shares a 10-second video of a billowing volcano where the crater expands as flames engulf the plume of smoke and lava streaks down the mountain slope.
The video has been widely shared in posts in Thai, English, Hindi and Arabic.
It surfaced following the eruption of Hayli Gubbi volcano on November 23 -- the first time in 12,000 years, according to the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (archived link).
The volcano is located in a remote and sparsely populated area in the Afar region, about 800 kilometres (500 miles) northeast of the capital Addis Ababa.
It is also situated in the Rift Valley -- a region with major geological and intense volcanic activity where two tectonic plates meet.
Ash clouds from the volcano drifted over Yemen, Oman, India, and northern Pakistan, the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre said (archived link).
However, the video does not show the actual eruption.
AI-generated video
AFP spotted text that reads "for representation only" in the false video -- indicating the visuals were intended for illustrative purposes.
A reverse image search using the video's keyframes led to an identical 10-second YouTube clip on July 5, 2025 -- nearly five months before the real eruption (archived link).
The channel's description reads: "All videos on this channel were created using artificial intelligence for entertainment purposes only. Each video is a fictional simulation of a specific event."
The YouTube channel, which has over 200,000 subscribers, has shared multiple AI-generated clips of natural disasters such as volcanoes and hurricanes.
AFP has previously debunked false visuals related to disasters made with AI.
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