Sources
Incident summary from the AI Incident Database, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Home/AI Incident Database/Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms
Purportedly AI-Generated 'Eric Langford' Missing Boy Scout Hoax Circulating Across Multiple Social Media Platforms
A purportedly AI-generated fictional story falsely claimed that a Boy Scout named Eric Langford disappeared in New York in 1989 and reappeared in 2001 after being kidnapped. The reported hoax originated on the UNKNOWN Files YouTube channel and was repackaged into viral TikTok videos and AI-written blog posts promoted on Facebook, misleading millions of viewers and searchers about a fabricated missing-person case.
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