Fact Check: Bees swarm bike being filled with E-85 petrol? Here are the facts

India Today Fact Check found that this video is not real. It's AI-generated.

India Today Fact Check

Claim
This video shows bees swarming a motorcycle during an E-85 fuel refill.

Fact
The viral video is AI-generated.

On June 5, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri launched India's first E-85 fuel dispenser at an Indian Oil petrol pump in New Delhi. E-85 is a high-ethanol blended fuel containing approximately 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent petrol. It is specifically designed for Flex Fuel Vehicles, which are engineered to run on higher ethanol blends.

Following the launch, a video allegedly showing the effects of using ethanol-blended fuel has gone viral. The clip allegedly shows bees swarming around the fuel tank and nozzle of a motorcycle while it is being filled with E-85 petrol.

Since ethanol is produced from agricultural feedstocks such as sugarcane and corn, many on social media believed the claim and shared the video with captions suggesting that honeybees were attracted to the fuel.

India Today Fact Check found that this video is AI-generated.

OUR PROBE

We reverse-searched frames from the video and found a longer, higher-resolution version online.

A closer examination revealed several visual inconsistencies. For instance, around the five-second mark, the Hindi text displayed near the Indian Oil logo appeared distorted. Similar distortions were visible in the markings and text on the fuel dispenser.

Additionally, a Google Gemini watermark was visible in the bottom-left corner of the video, indicating that it may be synthetic.

We analysed the clip using SynthID, Google's tool for identifying AI-generated content. The analysis indicated that the video was indeed AI-generated.

Therefore, it’s clear that the viral video is not real.

- Ends