Fake AI-Generated Channel of Videos About 3I/ATLAS Was Removed by YouTube
Our perception of reality should be based on verified facts and not AI-generated scripts. In the same way that junk food is bad for the physical health of our body, junk intellectual food is bad for the mental health of our brain.
In an interview today on the Will Cain Country podcast (accessible here), I explained that the belief regarding us living in a simulation — akin to a computer game, makes the believers irresponsible. It is a luxury that can be afforded by wealthy individuals; however, those of us who struggle with balancing our bank accounts cannot afford to ignore reality or assume that our actions do not affect other humans as if they were fictitious characters in a simulated game.
As a farm boy born with my feet on the ground, I see science as the privilege of figuring out the facts that should guide us. In case we have cosmic neighbors, we better know it irrespective of whether this notion is popular on social media or in computer games. This was the sentiment I conveyed in a new episode of the Danny Jones podcast, accessible here and recorded in the morning after my recent accidental injury.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can easily manufacture fake content, as most recently exemplified by the fictitious YouTube channel which took advantage of my popularity to spread misinformation among the 10 million followers of my essays or video interviews last month.
Today, YouTube took down this fake misinformation channel of videos about the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, which was named after me. This action followed an email exchange with YouTube representatives, during which I sent the following message:
“From: Avi Loeb
Date: Mon, Dec 8, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Subject: Re: YouTube Legal Support
To: YouTube Support Team
Over the past two weeks, I received hundreds of emails from fans who noticed a YouTube channel named after me with fake videos about the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, created by artificial intelligence (AI). The channel spreads false content that contradicts my written essays on https://avi-loeb.medium.com/
For the record, I had more than 5 million readers of my essays on this website over the month of November 2025.
It was obvious to my fans that the videos were fake because the clock in the background was frozen on a specific time and because two weeks ago — I injured my face on a trip to a Danny Jones podcast interview in Florida — whereas the fake videos did not show any sign of the injury. Nevertheless, a news outlet included one of these videos in a report about my research on 3I/ATLAS, blending reality with fake content when reporting about science.
In using AI to generate fake videos impersonating me, this YouTube channel violates several aspects of YouTube’s community guidelines and Terms of Service which should be the basis for YouTube to remove the channel. I hold the entity that created the fake videos legally liable to defamation and false content. By now, my fans and I filed dozens of reports to YouTube but the company did not take responsibility to fix this matter.
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The reluctance of YouTube to act was already featured in the following News report at the link accessible here.
Tonight, I am invited to appear on NBC News to discuss the fake AI content about me on YouTube. I am also in consultation with legal advisors at Harvard University whether to file a lawsuit against YouTube regarding this channel. The story will only get bigger if you do not remove the fake content on this YouTube channel.
Thank you for your attention to my privacy complaint. I very much hope that you will remove this channel.
Avi Loeb
Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science
Director, Institute for Theory & Computation
Harvard University”
Gladly, the legal team of YouTube removed the fake channel shortly after receiving my message.
Following the removal of the fake YouTube channel, a representative from NBC News asked me whether I kept a clip of the fake videos which are not accessible anymore, since NBC News wishes to feature sample clip during tonight’s interview with me. Gladly, such a video clip was featured in a news report a week ago, where the reporter assumed that it was real. Thank God for bad reporting!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.
