UFOs in Maryland? No, video is AI

Reports of drones flying over New Jersey and other parts of the eastern U.S. have some wondering if the drones are actually unidentified flying objects (UFOs).

An Instagram post with more than 200,000 likes claims to show a video of “UFOs over Maryland.” An X post with over 690,000 views that shows the same video says “More #UFOs spotted in Maryland … What are these drones doing in US airspace.”

But some commenters questioned whether the video was real. 

Is the video claiming to show UFOs over Maryland real?

No, the video claiming to show UFOs over Maryland isn’t real. The video was made with artificial intelligence.

The video does not show real UFOs or even drones flying over a Maryland neighborhood. It was made using artificial intelligence. The creator of the video said he was inspired to create it by the lack of information provided by the government about drones. 

Using InVid, a video forensics tool, VERIFY analyzed the video and conducted a reverse image search of each frame. The original video featuring the text “Now they are over Maryland!”, was posted to TikTok by Joey Malinski, a digital content creator, on Dec. 13.

Malinski is the director of Maryland-based digital company ATB Productions. He took credit for the viral clip on both his TikTok and YouTube channels and also described how he made the video clip using Sora, an AI creation tool, to design the clip. 

“With my clip, obviously, the government hasn’t been telling us about what these drones are. I’ve been a believer in aliens since I got visited in 2017. To me, I wanted to create something that was inspired by the original fake news. You know, UFO sightings and Bat Boy in the cave. Now we have me on a cell phone, shooting AI video of stuff that’s plausible. Because the plausibility is why it’s believable,” Malinski says in the video. 

To achieve the “plausibility” effect, he told VERIFY he chose to mimic existing drone videos circulating online, opting for a “handheld, shot-on-a-cellphone” style to make it appear authentic, while simultaneously incorporating elements that made it intentionally fake. 

“I included the traditional ‘circular’ UFO design, flashing lights, and added the X-Files theme music to enhance the darkness and humor of the concept,” Malinski explained. 

He said he thought adding the music would be a giveaway that the video was fake, but the clearest indicator the video was AI-generated is how the lights reflect on the trees, a detail where AI “still struggles with realism.”

“This video was an example of how surprisingly easy it is to make something look ‘real,’” Malinski said. 

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby has explained that the drone sightings include a mix of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and even misidentified stars. Senior officials from the FBI, Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have stated the drones don’t pose a national security threat, safety risk, or connection to foreign actors.

On Dec. 17, President Joe Biden told a reporter the drones are “nothing nefarious.” He speculated one authorized drone was sighted and it may have sparked a trend. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has suggested the government knows more about drones than it is letting on.