A California-based digital security company said it was “quite confidence” that the viral footage of claiming paragliding attracted to storms in China was not entirely true.
Peng Yujiang, 55, said he started an accidental flight while testing a newly purchased paragliding equipment in the Qilian mountainous region of northern China, and a camera installed on his glider captured the entire ordeal, which was said to have reached an altitude of 27,800 feet.
A Reuters survey shows that the first five seconds of Yujiang's film contain “fake shots”, which are likely generated by artificial intelligence, bringing the legitimacy of his story to question. Reuters has since removed the video from its platform.
“This content is clearly marked as third-party content and has not been verified or endorsed by Reuters,” it said in a statement.
It continued: “When we realized that content that might contain AI-generated elements on the Reuters Connection Platform, we investigated and removed it because the material did not comply with our partner content policies.”
Global News, the BBC, the Associated Press and the New York Times, among other media – shared videos that may have been shaped last week.
The survey was conducted by Getreal Security, which claims it is the world's leading authority on digital media authentication and verification, and points to several inconsistencies in Yujiang's videos, namely, his helmet was black at the beginning of the video, and his changes to White were black at the beginning, and his legs were in the protective and hanging tail at the beginning.
Get the daily national news
Get news, politics, economics and current events titles delivered to your inbox every day.
Other inconsistencies given by Reuters include:
- Its video format is different from other videos in editing
- It looks like the full AI video has been uploaded to Facebook via DOUBAO AI watermark, indicating that their tool is used to create it
- The sound may have been extended from other videos in compiled to make it appear coherent
- The “Apollo 2” text (a paragliding model visible in other videos) is unrecognizable in the manipulated text. These letters are disturbed, and even if some newer models can sometimes pass text, it is still a common weakness in AI-generated content
- Peng's legs look unnatural and twisted
- The green ground seen in the AI version does not match the satellite image of the snow in Qilian Mountains
While GPS data posted by Yujiang on the forum Xcontest, a popular forum in the paragliding community, suggests that the flight did occur, the aircraft was later deleted, which, according to Czech Paragliding Jakub Havel, was indeed deleted. Other flight data shared by Yujiang is still on the website.
Paragliding experts question Yujiang's claim to his ascent was a coincidence, believing it was unlikely that it was because he could see his “professional heavy gloves” in the video, a project that is not usually used in test flights.
“These are not clothes you usually wear or things you're ready for,” Brad Harris, president of the Tasmanian Suspension and Paragliding Association, told Reuters.
Given that some parts of the lens may be AI-generated, it is not sure if Yujiang is actually using a specialized hand-made heating device shown in the video.
Godfrey Wenness, a former parade distance world record holder, said experienced paragliders could have managed to reverse the ascent shown in Yujiang's flight data, and Yujiang was either “inexperienced” or continued to climb on purpose.
Meanwhile, Daniel Wainwright, a flight coach in Australia, told Reuters that stormy clouds like Yujiang flew to “don't just appear over your head and linger you in space. They've been built for a while. He shouldn't fly.”
Gansu Aviation Sports Association said in a report released Wednesday that Yujiang broke the elevation record. Private groups that oversee air sports in the province did not respond to Reuters' request for comment and deleted their report on Yujiang flights from their WeChat account.
By Thursday, the association's website had been blocked.
It also paused Yujiang's flight for six months. A member of his flight team was suspended for six months for posting videos without authorization.
– Reuters' documents
& Copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
