Purportedly AI-Generated Video Reportedly Misled Elderly Malaysian Couple Into Traveling to Nonexistent Cable Car Attraction

An elderly couple from Kuala Lumpur reportedly drove three hours to Kuak Hulu, Perak, on June 30, 2025, after viewing a purportedly Google Veo 3-generated video depicting a nonexistent cable car attraction called the Kuak Skyride. Published on TikTok by "TV Rakyat," the video featured a synthetic reporter and purported visitors. The couple learned after arriving that the attraction did not exist.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 3 Misinformation
• Primary risk subdomain: 3.1 False or misleading information

The AI system was used to generate highly realistic but entirely false video content that misled users, causing them to make real-world decisions that resulted in material and emotional harm.

Additional risk subdomains

• 7.3 Lack of capability or robustness: The reports also detail multiple instances of ChatGPT and other travel chatbots hallucinating non-existent destinations and incorrect schedules due to a lack of capability and robustness.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Intentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The primary incident was caused by a human intentionally using Google's Veo3 AI system to generate and post a deceptive, realistic deepfake video to gain social media engagement.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Risk Level 3: Limited Risk. The incident involves AI-generated content (deepfakes) and chatbots, which are classified as limited risk under the EU AI Act and are subject to transparency obligations such as watermarking.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: Veo 3 3 (Google)
• AI purpose: Deepfake Video Generation; Question Answering
• Behaviour type: Assistant
• Alleged developer: Synthetic video generation technology developers, Synthetic media generation technology developers, Google
• Alleged deployer: TV Rakyat, Synthetic media creators, Information manipulation actors in Malaysia, Information manipulation actors, Content creators
• Alleged harmed parties: Travelers, tourists, TikTok users, Social media users, Facebook users, Epistemic integrity, Elderly individuals in Malaysia, Elderly individuals, Consumers

Harm severity

Severity ratings are based on this scale.

Highest direct severity in any category: Minor. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Privacy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Minor
• Epistemic: direct Minor, indirect Substantial
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

Psychological

Reported: The reports explicitly describe emotional distress, heartbreak, embarrassment, and anger experienced by the misled travelers.

Indirectly caused: The elderly Malaysian couple experienced severe heartbreak, embarrassment, and anger upon realizing they had been deceived by the AI video, and were too embarrassed to tell their children.

Inferred additional harm: Other travelers misled by AI hallucinations likely experienced similar levels of frustration, anxiety, and distress when stranded or lost.

Epistemic

Reported: The reports explicitly describe the erosion of shared reality and trust due to highly realistic AI-generated videos and chatbot hallucinations.

Directly caused: Google's Veo3 and ChatGPT generated highly realistic but entirely fabricated videos and itineraries, leading users to believe non-existent places and services were real.

Indirectly caused: The proliferation of these AI fabrications erodes public trust in online media, travel information, and journalism, making it harder for people to distinguish reality from fabrication.

Inferred additional harm: Widespread epistemic degradation as generative AI makes it increasingly difficult for the public to verify real-world locations and events.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 5
• People reportedly harmed: 9
• People reportedly exposed: 10000

Potential causes

Management

• Lack of Platform Oversight: Platforms did not manage the risks of realistic AI videos on their feeds.

Technology

• Highly Realistic Generative AI: Google Veo3 generated highly convincing video of a non-existent attraction.
• Fictitious News-Style Narration: The AI video fabricated a realistic news segment with a fake reporter.
• Inconspicuous Platform Watermarks: The Veo3 logo in the corner was easily missed by viewers.

Data Inputs

• Fabricated Video Footage: AI training data enabled the generation of realistic fake scenery.
• Misleading Social Media Metadata: The video lacked tags or metadata identifying it as AI-generated.

Human Factors

• Lack of Digital Literacy: Elderly users struggled to identify subtle AI artifacts like the blob error.
• Reluctance to Verify Information: The couple was too embarrassed to consult their children before traveling.
• Misplaced Trust in News Formats: The presence of a fake reporter made the couple believe the broadcast was real.

Process and Methods

• Inadequate Platform Moderation: Social media platforms hosted the misleading video without warning labels.
• Lack of Pre-Travel Verification: No robust process for users to easily verify digital tourism claims.
• Delayed Content Takedown: The video was only removed after it went viral and caused real-world harm.

Regulatory Environment

• Absence of Specific AI Legislation: Malaysia had no specific laws regulating AI-generated media at the time.
• Lack of Mandatory Watermarking: No legal requirements existed to enforce clear, unmissable AI labels.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The reports provide consistent, detailed accounts of the Malaysian couple's experience across multiple reputable news outlets, along with specific statistics and examples of chatbot hallucinations in other countries. The role of AI (Veo3 for the video, ChatGPT/Gemini for the itineraries) is explicitly stated, and the resulting financial and emotional harms are well-documented.
• Ambiguities identified: The exact creator of the 'TV Rakyat' video and their intent (whether malicious or purely for entertainment/engagement) is not fully clear.
• Alternative interpretations: The video could be interpreted as a creative art project or parody rather than deliberate misinformation, though its realistic style led to actual deception.

This incident involving AI-generated travel deepfakes and chatbot hallucinations represents a consumer safety and misinformation issue with negligible national security implications. The impact is confined to localized financial and emotional distress for individual travelers, without threatening critical infrastructure, sovereignty, or national economic stability.

• Overall national security impact: Negligible
• Scope: Multiple nations
• Primary target: No clear primary
• Other affected: Malaysia, Peru, Japan
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. The issue of AI-generated consumer misinformation represents an ongoing societal and technological challenge rather than an imminent national security crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI tools acted as assistants, generating content based on direct human prompts and requiring human dissemination to have any real-world impact.
• Novelty: Established threat. AI hallucinations and deepfake videos are well-documented, established issues that have occurred in various public domains previously.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. The incident involves travel misinformation and chatbot hallucinations with no threats to physical systems, critical infrastructure, or human safety at a national scale.
• Information security: Negligible. While the incident involves AI-generated deepfakes, it was aimed at social media engagement rather than state-sponsored information warfare or intelligence compromise.
• Sovereignty: Negligible. No core government operations, electoral systems, or sovereign decision-making processes were impacted by these travel-related AI fabrications.
• Economic security: Negligible. Financial losses were limited to individual tourists' travel expenses, presenting no threat to national economic stability or strategic industries.
• Societal stability: Negligible. The incident caused localized distress to individual travelers but did not threaten social cohesion, civil liberties, or population-scale stability.