A viral video circulating on social media claims that popular sitcom ‘The Simpsons’ predicted ‘no internet’ across the USA on January 16, 2025. It suggested the internet would be down when Donald Trump would step into the White House for his inauguration speech. However, the footage is misleading on two aspects.
Firstly, the clip representing Donald Trump’s inauguration didn’t coincide with the actual date, which is January 20 and not the 16th. Second, the visuals aren’t derived from the episodes of the American show ‘The Simpsons’ but are, instead, an AI-generated one.
The edited clip does not accurately represent any episode of the original show and is learned to be purely produced using artificial intelligence.
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X users react
While many users shared the video and noted that the show had actually predicted a global outage on January 16, few informed netizens clarified it was all a work of AI.
All you need to know about the viral video
Nevertheless, here’s what the video featured. It opened by showing a Trump-like animated character standing at the podium and furious screaming over no internet in the country. “The Simpsons predict no internet on 16th January 2025”, the video said putting down its fake claim. The video claimed that the outage would be caused by a giant shark disturbing the cables under the sea.
AI-generated video goes viral
The viral video also showed a news anchor announcing the internet blackout on television. A TV screen read the news, “Total shutdown in the USA – No internet”.
The clip was posted on TikTok by a user named ‘Mexicasoccerai’.
Now, this one-minute-long reel is going viral across internet platforms.
Despite this being an AI-generated video, ‘The Simpsons’ fans are still eager to know whether the prediction will come alive.
A similar video was shared by the same user last year. That footage suggested there would be no internet connection on December 15, 2024. However, no major outages were reported on this date.
