AI video of Cambodian bunker blast misleads online
- Published on December 16, 2025 at 03:51
- 2 min read
- By Nattakorn PLODDEE, AFP Thailand
As deadly border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia resumed in December 2025, an AI-generated clip falsely claiming to show a Cambodian bunker under attack circulated online. The visuals contain errors that indicate they are AI-generated.
"Khmer soldiers were about to eat -- (this is) their last meal!!" reads the Thai-language caption of a Facebook reel shared on December 10.
The 10-second clip purports to show soldiers in camouflage uniforms wearing Cambodian badges as they eat inside a dirt bunker. The camera pans from right to left as they take cover, with dirt scattered by an impact.
The video circulated as fighting raged between Thailand and Cambodia at their disputed border, where both sides claim a smattering of historic temples (archived link).
Thailand on December 14 announced its first civilian death in a week of fighting, as international efforts failed to stop violence that has forced hundreds of thousands from their homes (archived link). At least 29 people have been killed, including 15 Thai soldiers, a Thai army medic and 12 Cambodian civilians, officials said.
The conflict, rooted in a colonial-era demarcation dispute along their 800-kilometre (500-mile) border, has displaced around 800,000 people.
The same clip spread widely among Thai Facebook users.
But the footage is not genuine -- it contains visual inconsistencies indicative of AI.
AFP uploaded the footage to Hive Moderation's AI video detector, which resulted in a probability of 99 percent that the video contained "AI-generated or deepfake content" (archived link).
At the clip's five-second mark, no impact crater appears on the dirt walls after the blast.
Furthermore, two of the soldiers' movements as the dust clears are indistinguishable.
The uniform in the fabricated video also differs from those worn by Cambodian soldiers along the border with Thailand.
The patch on a soldier's arm in the clip is rectangular, while genuine images distributed by AFP depict a circular patch on the right arm.
AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the Thailand-Cambodia border clashes here.
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
