Say goodbye to the mixtape, say hello to the misinformation compilation starring podcaster Joe Rogan.
Or not.
In a March 29 Facebook video, what sounds like Rogan’s voice floats conspiracy theories about sea monsters, gold mines and aliens.
“Did you know about the NASA theory, let me explain,” the Rogan-like voice says as the video rolls images and illustrations showing space and underwater scenes. The claims that follow include that NASA “prohibited” ocean exploration, the Loch Ness Monster could be real, “the Grand Canyon is hiding the legendary lost city of El Dorado,” and the Bermuda triangle may be “housing supernatural forces as well as alien abductions.”
(Screenshot of Facebook post)
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This isn’t Rogan. It’s one of the latest of many artificial intelligence-generated Rogan clips circulating on social media. Searching TikTok for “Joe Rogan” and the Bermuda triangle, the Grand Canyon, or NASA sea exploration, returns dozens of similar seemingly AI-generated clips.
Hany Farid, a University of California, Berkeley professor who specializes in digital forensics said there were “several tell-tale signs that this video is fake.”
One, Rogan appears only briefly in the video, and when he does, his mouth movements don’t sync with the audio. Secondly, the addition of background music, “is a classic technique to confuse models designed to detect AI-generated voices.” And, finally, an analysis of the audio, isolated from the music, “confidently classifies the audio as AI-generated.”
After several searches on Google, YouTube, and TikTok, we could find no evidence these were real audio clips or things Rogan had said on his podcast, the “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
That’s not to say Rogan has not sometimes discussed similar topics on his show. In 2020, he interviewed former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman about his weeks living on the ocean floor. In 2019, he discussed Egyptian artifacts that were supposedly found in the Grand Canyon — a myth the Smithsonian Institution has debunked.
But we found no authentic audio clips matching the viral Facebook video.
We rate the claim that this video shows Rogan talking about “mythical sea beasts,” gold in the Grand Canyon and aliens in the Bermuda triangle False.