He’s an Oscar-winning martial artist who has survived jumping off cliffs and dangling from helicopters, but the 71-year-old action legend Jackie Chan can’t seem to outrun the internet’s persistent celebrity death hoaxes.
In the latest, completely false, viral scare, artificial intelligence has played a major role, feeding fans a lie that rapidly spread across social media.
The panic began on November 10 when a Facebook page, “Stories About Us,” posted an emotional message that shocked his fans.
Accompanying the post was a convincing, yet disturbing, AI-generated image of a smiling Chan lying in a hospital bed, holding a stuffed panda toy.
The caption read: “Today, the most beloved person in the world cinema, all of our hearts, had passed away, especially our generation, a worthy actor, a great Kung Fu player, the man with the funny laugh, Jackie Chan, has passed away.”
he combination of sentimental phrasing and the highly realistic (but fake) photo led fans to search engines looking for confirmation.
Thankfully, the rumour was shut down after fans actually checked the facts.
X (formerly Twitter) users were among the first to debunk the claim.
User @digitalGal_X wrote: “Facebook’s latest fake news: Jackie Chan has passed. He hasn’t.”