Muzha Azariah Kucha
A 29 seconds video, supposedly an excerpt of a report by FOX News shared on TikTok by an account, TurboLearn-ai made a claim that Harvard college has temporarily closed all classes after the discovery that students have been using AI to reach flawless GPAs.
The presenter in the video said: “Harvard college has temporarily closed all classes after the discovery that students have been using AI to reach flawless GPAs. The college board has concluded an emergency meeting and stated that students have not been cheating and all grades will remain.”
“Students have been walking into class and hit the record button, the AI will then listen to the professor yapping and create super detailed notes. It even creates active recall flashcards and multiple-choice quizzes to assist with remembering the class content. The AI is called TurboLearn AI,” the presenter said.
In academics, ‘Harvard’ is renowned and such claims or news which purportedly was from FOX News has the tendency of going viral especially on TikTok. As at the time of the commencement of this verification, the post had generated over 1.3 million views, 557 comments, over 43,200 likes and about 13,500 bookmarks. This video is one of the most viewed videos on the TurboLearn-ai’s page on TikTok, and the combination of Harvard and Fox News in the video has made it imperative to fact-check the claim.
VERIFICATION
A deep search on FOX News, the supposed channel where the report was made, has nothing linked to that claim. The claim was published on Thursday, September 12, the word ‘Harvard’ was searched on FOX News’ website to search for all stories containing Harvard from August 1, 2024 to September 16, 2024 and there was absolutely no story to support the claim.
Using the Google Reverse Image tool, the researcher found that the image of the presenter in the video is that of a real Fox News Reporter, Jesse Watters. Watters has been an employee of Fox News for 22 years and rose to become one of the station’s most popular hosts. Currently, he is the Host of Jesse Watters Primetime and Co-Host of The Five.
A closer analysis of the Harvard video revealed that the Watters’s lip movements were not in sync with the words being said in the video, hence the researcher went on the look for similar videos featuring Watters. The search led to a video showing Jesse Watters wearing the same suit, shirt and tie, but the clip was an 8 minutes, 10 seconds video on Fox News broadcast for Jesse Watters Primetime on October 7, 2022. In the video, there was no featured story of Havard College being shut down.
Meanwhile, the Harvard college clip showed a view of a university in the clip, the banner from the clip stated that it was Flinders University. Flinders is located in Australia and has no affiliation with Harvard in the USA except for Flinders’ use of Harvard referencing style. The Harvard college clip does not show any view from the Harvard campus.
Moreso, a critical analysis of the TikTok account where the claim was posted further showed that the account majorly promotes TurboLearnAI, an AI tool that generates comprehensive notes, interactive flashcards, and personalised quizzes from class lectures. The analysis of the entire clip also showed that it is a promotional video for TurboLearnAI as it features how the app works.
CONCLUSION
The TikTok account used Artificial Intelligence to generate a false report in a social media stunt to promote TurboLearn AI, attempting to give prominence to the AI learning tools. This claim made about Harvard in the video is FALSE.
