AI-Generated Dirt Track Crash Fools Local News Station

On October 23rd, 2025, a local news station in Chicago, NBC Chicago, aired a segment featuring a video of a dramatic dirt track race car crash. The footage, which appeared to show an entire field of cars colliding after the track's lights went out, was shared by the Weaber Valley Speedway Facebook page.

However, the news station soon discovered that the video was not real. The Weaber Valley Speedway page, which has over 340,000 followers on Facebook and 40,000 on Instagram, is known for posting satirical content about "redneck stereotypes." The page's owner, Harold Weaver, revealed that he had created the crash video using OpenAI's Sora 2 video generator, a powerful AI tool that can produce highly realistic footage.

Weaver explained that crafting a single 10-second video like the one that fooled NBC Chicago requires extensive prompting and coaching of the AI system, often taking several paragraphs of detailed instructions. The deceptive video has highlighted the growing concerns around the use of AI technology to create convincing deepfakes that can easily mislead the public and even legitimate news outlets.

As AI models continue to improve, the threat of such hoaxes spreading on social media is expected to escalate. Weaver himself expressed mixed feelings about the situation, acknowledging the potential dangers while also finding the successful prank to be humorous. The incident serves as a cautionary tale about the need for increased vigilance and fact-checking in the age of rapidly advancing AI technology.