Titled “Darkhold Destiny,” the set is focused on “the mystical, the mythical and the mighty” magical characters from the Marvel universe, including Doctor Strange, Thor, Hela and Dormammu. The collection, which marks the third “Universes Beyond” collaboration in Magic and Marvel’s multiyear deal, will include a brand-new storyline set in the Marvel Universe and an original character created by the team.
The “Darkhold Destiny” Magic set will release April 7, 2027 and debut alongside a new Marvel comic book that showcases the story.
“This is a new kind of Universes Beyond set,” reads the description from Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast, the makers of Magic: The Gathering. “By taking the core elements players love about Magic: The Gathering, the team thoughtfully and strategically expressed those design intentions through the Marvel Universe. The narrative unfolds across nearly 30 dimensions and is centered around four main characters — Doctor Strange, Thor, Hela and Dormammu.”
The news was revealed during Magic’s New York Comic Con panel Friday, where Wizards also announced that fans who see “Avengers: Doomsday” opening weekend in Infinity Vision at Regal Cinemas will receive an exclusive Magic: The Gathering card featuring Doctor Doom.
Additionally, two more Marvel-Magic team-ups were promoted during the panel: a special release called “Doomsdrop” and a new Secret Lair kit titled “Marvel’s History of Heroes.”
The Doomsdrop is inspired by the Marvel comics and is a multi-drop collection that will “predominantly feature Doctor Doom, although fans should expect other special guests from the Marvel Universe,” according to Wizards.
“Secret Lair Countdown Kit: Marvel’s History of Heroes” is a collection of 30 cards “that bring the storied past of Marvel to life.” That limited-edition drop will launch Nov. 2 at 9 a.m. PT and is priced at $199.99.
Per Wizards, “The release features illustrations crafted by over 30 artists celebrating iconic moments from Marvel’s comic history — from the transformation of the Fantastic Four in space via cosmic rays, to the first appearance of Iron Man with Ho Yinsen, to Jean Grey’s transformation into the fiery Phoenix.”
See below for a first look at cards from the new “Darkhold Destiny” Magic: The Gathering set.
A man was able to avoid paying a parking charge after using ChatGPT as his ‘lawyer’ to push back against the charge.
Rafal Goral had gone to Newquay in Cornwall in August 2023, hoping to enjoy a lovely day out at the seaside.
He parked up at a car park operated by Smart Parking Limited, and joined a long queue to go and pay for his parking, but when he got to the machine he found that it wasn’t accepting card payments, so he downloaded an app and paid for his parking that way.
Unfortunately for Rafal, 45, during this period he had unknowingly passed a time limit, with a ticking clock that started the second his reg number was registered driving onto the car park. Between arriving and paying via app 16 minutes had passed.
Two weeks later Rafal, a refinery worker from Chelmsford in Essex, received a letter informing him that he would have a pay a £100 parking charge due to his late payment but after years of back and forth between them, he was finally able to get the charge cancelled.
Rafal was able to successfully get the charge cancelled (SWNS)
“From start to finish it was not about the money, I could pay it, but it is about the principle,” he said. “If you know you are right then you shouldn’t be paying any money to them.
“This is kind of a David and Goliath battle. They have lawyers and they are a big company and they just gave up in the end.”
In a desperate move, Rafal had uploaded the letters he was receiving into ChatGPT and asking the AI to generate a response for what he should say.
“From start to finish I was asking ChatGPT every time I got a letter what to do. It was telling me what to say, where to go, and everything,” he said. “I did it all with the help of AI.”
Rafal has shared a message that people can push back against parking charges.
“I want the public to know that they can do it and they shouldn’t give up,” he said. “People don’t want to go through the hassle, so they just pay but it is wrong. It is shocking.”
Rafal had arrived at the car park at approximately 10:12am on 4 August 2023, and said it took time to download the app and pay for his parking.
Rafal had to push back against the charge for years (SWNS)
After receiving the parking charge notice on 25 August, he appealed the charge in September, but didn’t anything else until January, by which time the parking charge had gone up to £170.
“I appealed straight away and I heard nothing from them. They were harassing me and sending me letters saying that I had to go to court,” he said. “They were trying to make me scared.”
Things continued to escalate, until Rafal was threatened with being taken to court over the charges in October 2026 after refusing to pay a fine that they dropped to £60.
Eventually, the parking charges were dropped, and Rafal was left ecstatic.
“I am so happy,” he said. “This is something that properly raised me up after three years of this fight.
LADBible has approached Smart Parking Limited for comment.
It is not recommended to use generative AI for legal advice.
Ledger is investigating reported losses among Southeast Asian customers who bought devices from reseller CryptoBilis, and has asked the reseller to pause sales and shipments.
The company told anyone who bought from CryptoBilis in the past 90 days not to set up their device, and those who have to move funds to a new device with a fresh seed phrase.
Onchain investigator Specter traced more than $86 million in suspected thefts across Ethereum, Tron and Bitcoin. Ledger hasn’t confirmed the figure or the cause.
Ledger is telling some customers to hold off on setting up their hardware wallets.
The Paris-based wallet maker said Friday it is investigating reports that users in Southeast Asia who bought devices from a reseller called CryptoBilis have lost funds.
“As a precaution, and pending the results of our investigation, we have asked CryptoBilis to pause all sales and shipments of Ledger devices,” the company’s support account wrote on X.
Ledger urged anyone who bought from the reseller in the past 90 days not to set up their device if they haven’t already. Those who have should consider moving their assets to a new Ledger signer with a new seed phrase, the master backup that can regenerate a wallet’s private keys.
Ledger is investigating reports of loss of funds from users in South East Asia who purchased products from a reseller named CryptoBillis. As a precaution, and pending the results of our investigation, we have asked CryptoBilis to pause all sales and shipments of Ledger devices.…
Ledger didn’t say what caused the losses or how many customers were affected. Hardware wallets are designed to keep private keys offline, but a device compromised before it reaches the buyer, such as one shipped with a recovery phrase an attacker already knows, can leave funds exposed. No tampering has been confirmed.
The losses may be large, potentially in the tens of millions of dollars. Pseudonymous crypto investigator Specter said they traced theft addresses flagged in reports from Ledger users on X and Reddit and found inflows from hundreds of victim wallets across Ethereum, Tron, and Bitcoin.
There have been a reports on X and Reddit of wallet-draining by Ledger users.
I traced the theft addresses and identified inflows from more hundreds of victim wallets across several major blockchains, including Ethereum, TRON, and Bitcoin.
“Total losses $86M+,” Specter wrote. Arkham data shared by the investigator shows nearly $87 million at those addresses, including about $42 million in ETH, $17.6 million in BTC and $16.5 million in USDT. Ledger hasn’t confirmed the figure, and it’s unclear whether every theft is linked to the reseller.
Rival Trezor has faced its own security headaches, including customer data exposed in a shipping partner breach and a breach of its email just last month.
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The episode adds to a brutal stretch for crypto security. Last month, Bitget lost roughly $387 million in a hack that investigators have tied to North Korea, and blockchain tracking firms Chainalysis and Elliptic have since traced part of the haul.
Danny Trejo has issued his first statement since facing backlash for starring in the pro-ICE Daily Wire movie “Pawn Shop” from Ben Shapiro‘s production company.
“I am a proud Mexican who has always been and will always be a supporter of my community. I am also obviously pro-immigrant. I am not pro-ICE,” the “Spy Kids” actor told TMZ.
“I know where I come from and I know our struggles,” he added, “I am an actor. My job is to tell a story.” TMZ reported that Trejo had told people on set that he was attracted to the role because it was a positive depiction of a Latino who is also a veteran.
The production was shut down in Livingston, Montana last Saturday when locals complained about the production’s impact on the Livingston food bank and improper warnings about hazardous stunts. Production resumed Monday, with political commentator Shapiro slamming the shutdown as “content discrimination” and “a violation of the First Amendment.”
One scene that was captured on video by TMZ appeared to recreate the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good. Harvey Keitel co-stars as a fellow veteran hired by Trejo’s character to work at the pawn shop.
The logline for the film reads: “When a Minneapolis riot forces a young ICE officer to complete a high-stakes arrest alone after his partner is killed, he is hunted through the streets by a furious mob intent on freeing the prisoner and punishing anyone who still upholds the law. Barricaded inside a neighborhood pawn shop with a hard-edged Hispanic veteran and the man’s progressive college-age grandson, ordinary men must choose between the rule of law and the chaos that wants to burn it all down in a modern siege of honor and defiance.”
Trejo’s rep confirmed his statements but had no further comment.
Currently, there is no price data available for Binance, reflecting uncertainty in the market. The lack of trading volume indicates thin flow, which may be a result of traders waiting for clarity on the ongoing investigation. As the situation develops, market participants are likely to reassess their positions based on the DOJ’s findings and Binance’s response to the allegations.
Binance is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges globally, facilitating a wide range of crypto trading activities. The DOJ has jurisdiction due to Binance’s operations within the U.S. and its involvement in transactions that may violate federal laws, particularly regarding sanctions compliance.
Where Do We Go From Here
What traders should watch next includes how Binance responds to the DOJ’s investigation and any further developments regarding the sanctions probe. Key levels to monitor will be the exchange’s compliance measures and any shifts in trading volume as the market digests news on regulatory actions. The potential for substantial fines could have broader implications for the exchange and the crypto market as a whole.
It’s rare to see a dramatic feature filmmaker move into the realm of documentary with the craftmanship and authority and insightful power summoned by Ava DuVernay. “13th,” the documentary she made back in 2016, was a revelation — it told the lacerating story of how the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished slavery, was a revolutionary act of law that, at the same time, opened the door to the way that numerous dimensions of slavery would be perpetuated in America under different names and tactics. The film was despairing and inspiring in equal measure; it cleansed you with the truth.
Tonight, the New York Film Festival presented the premiere of “14th,” a documentary follow-up in which DuVernay sets her sights on the 14th Amendment, a Constitutional addendum, ratified in 1868, that was so monumental — it guarantees equal protection under the law, but also encompasses five intricate sections that deal with issues from insurrection to due process — that one observer calls it “a Constitution in and of itself,” and another hails it as “the everything bagel of democracy.”
“14th,” I’m pleased to report, exerts the same kind of historical/topical force that “13th” did. DuVernay, while she works in an extremely accessible and mainstream way, has a singular gift for making the nuances of history come alive. “14th” is steeped in history, but it’s not a dry lecture. Instead, DuVernay cuts through the dusty complacency with which we tend to regard the Constitution (just hearing that word can make you feel like you’re back in school) and shows you that the Constitution is a living, breathing document, one that we fail to heed at our peril. Which is more or less what’s happening today.
A potent movie about history almost has to surprise you. It needs to show you that what you think you know isn’t the half of it. “14th” kicks off with the cutting insight that the three amendments to the Constitution that were passed in the aftermath of the Civil War — the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments — represented nothing less than a restart of American life and society. Yet we don’t necessarily talk about them that way. Everyone knows who “the framers” of the Constitution were (Hamilton, Jefferson, Franklin), but “14th” argues that the period just after the cataclysm of the Civil War had its own framers, who were nearly as significant. Thaddeus Stevens, a member of the House of Representatives who was part of the Radical Republican faction of the 1860s, is a figure who, according to one of the film’s observers, “created the world we live in today.”
With the abolition of slavery, four million people who were formerly enslaved were suddenly added to the fabric of American society. How would that work? DuVernay tell the story of Reconstruction through fresh eyes, and part of the power of her chronicle is that she doesn’t stint on the joy and liberation that were part of it. Black Americans, who were now citizens, formed communities and industries, they became newspaper editors and law enforcers, as well as politicians (there were 1,000 newly elected Black representatives). But it’s more than that. The point is made that Black people, for the first time in American life, could create a fully realized dream of who they wanted to be as individuals. But this would not work unless their citizenship was enshrined. That’s the first thing the 14th Amendment did. It guaranteed equal protection under the law, and it established birthright citizenship for all people born in the United States — a radical idea, one designed to apply to both the children of former enslaved people and the children of immigrants, because what that represented was a stepping up of the rejection of the European aristocratic system (i.e., citizenship by legacy) that had first been overthrown by the American Revolution. Birthright citizenship continued what the original Constitution started.
In recent years, it’s become a stylistic tic in documentaries to keep the talking heads offscreen, letting their words simply flow on the soundtrack without interrupting the images. DuVernay is having none of that. She has assembled an extraordinary roster of scholars, politicians, and commentators, led by the Civil Rights attorney Sherrilyn Ifill, who becomes the film’s oratorical star. We see the speakers and absorb the play of their personalities, as they describe, with a big-picture yet highly personalized passion, how the law of the land actually played out in the creation of the second America that rose from the ashes of the Civil War. DuVernay makes history organic by capturing how the very texture of people’s lives was changed by the law. And she’ll go wherever she needs to illustrate that, even to comedy clips from George Carlin and the great Paul Mooney, who does a bit about the happiness of white people when they were slave owners that must be seen to be believed. (His bit isn’t really about the slave era; it’s about today.)
As the film captures, the rise of the new Black citizenry during Reconstruction was rapid. For one thing, Black Americans did not waste time or spirit on vengeance. But the fall was every bit as rapid, as a culture of systematized violence and murder rose up in the South to try to stuff the genie of emancipation back in the bottle. The Ku Klux Klan was one half of it. The other half is captured in DuVernay’s fascinating portrait of the Lost Cause — the culture of defiance and regret and literal whitewashing that came to represent the Southern consciousness of what life had been before the Civil War. Slavery itself, the obscene horror and inhumanity of it, was washed out of the collective memory, and the Civil War was recast as “the war of Northern aggression.”
What remained were totems and symbols that were somehow infused with nobility. The film traces the history of the Confederate flag as signifier, showing us how rock stars from Tom Petty to ZZ Top used it as a badass backdrop, and spotlighting how the flag was imprinted on the roof of the General Lee, the orange 1969 Dodge Charger driven by the heroes of “The Dukes of Hazzard.” This was one of the most popular TV shows of its time (it debuted in 1979, just as Jimmy Carter’s presidency was winding down), and it was basically using the semiotics of the Civil War — of those who went to war to maintain slavery — as a signifier of cool.
This consciousness extended to the erecting of Confederate monuments in public squares, a movement so widespread — there were 2,629 such monuments built across the South — that it became larger than the sum of its parts. The message to Black citizens, according to one the film’s observers, was, “You matter so little that we’ll celebrate the people who wanted to enslave you.” The film looks at what the movement to remove those monuments, notably the statue of Robert E. Lee that stood in the capital of Virginia (the former capital of the Confederacy), was really about and what it entailed. It’s all part of how the Lost Cause myth became what the film calls “the greatest lie in American history.”
But what does that have to do with the 14th Amendment? DuVernay is getting to that. The true subject of the movie is the power of law, and the erosion of law. The dehumanization of Black people represented by the persistence of Confederate iconography in mainstream culture became an underground signifier of the precariousness of the freedoms enshrined by the 14th Amendment. The rise of the Klan, who took their cross-burning imagery from “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), wasn’t simply a matter of domestic terrorism. It was an attempt “to overthrow biracial democracy.” Between the Civil War and World War II, there were 4,400 lynchings. So entrenched was the backlash against Reconstruction, which was institutionalized with Jim Crow (a system of “law” that was really a culture of fascist violence), that it wasn’t until Brown vs. Board of Education, in 1954, that the might of the 14th Amendment began to reassert itself.
Documentaries tend to lessen in impact when they catch up to recent events, but as “14th” moves into the current era something remarkable happens: The film’s themes of racial oppression begin to mutate into themes of generalized oppression. The section of the 14th Amendment that deals with “insurrection” could not be more explicit. It states that anyone who has been responsible for fomenting an insurrection against the United States government cannot run for public office. This means that Donald Trump, after the unambiguous insurrection of Jan. 6, should not have been allowed to run for president in 2024. In that sense, he trampled on the Constitution simply by being re-elected, and the trashing of the 14th Amendment continued unabated. Birthright citizenship? Ignored. Due process? Out the window with ICE.
The degree to which the United States has been in the ugly thick of a Constitutional crisis since the beginning of 2025 has been persistently understated by the media. But Ava DuVernay states it with meticulous boldness. I don’t agree with her attempt to posit DEI as a Constitutional issue on the level of the Voting Rights Act. (The film itself acknowledges that the DEI movement, whatever one’s opinion of it, represented nothing so much as a “cultural shift.”) But where she shows us the big picture is in capturing how the freedoms of the 14th Amendment have been under siege, and how this may be nothing less than the ritual growing pains — the built-in trauma — of American democracy. Advance, backlash, conflict spilling over into violence…and then re-advance. That’s the rhythm, the moral and spiritual roller-coaster of perfecting our imperfect union. “14th” makes you see that we’re in the heat of the backlash now. But it also lets you feel that a re-advance is waiting in the wings.
SlushWallet has made a significant move to enhance the onboarding experience for users of the Sui network. By allowing deposits from 25 different chains with just a card or a few taps, SlushWallet aims to simplify access to Sui transactions. This development, first highlighted by the CryptoTwitter influencer @SuiNetwork, could lead to increased user adoption and engagement across the Sui ecosystem.
Breaking It Down
The broader crypto market is experiencing mixed signals, but Sui stands out as it becomes more accessible through SlushWallet. The integration facilitates user deposits and exchanges, potentially boosting trading activity on the Sui platform. With this enhancement, users can now engage with Sui more easily, which is crucial for its growth amid varying market momentum. This move is indicative of a broader trend towards simplifying blockchain interactions for everyday users.
Market Pulse
Currently, Sui is trading at $0 with no reported volume in the past 24 hours. Despite the lack of trading volume, the integration with SlushWallet indicates a positive shift toward user-friendly solutions in the crypto space. As these developments unfold, the expectation is that user engagement and transaction volume on Sui will gradually increase, influenced by the new accessibility features offered by SlushWallet.
As the SEC moves forward with its proposal, the implications for registered funds and their affiliates are significant. By allowing more flexible trading arrangements, funds may see lower costs and improved operational efficiency. While the market currently reflects mixed signals, this regulatory action signals a proactive approach by the SEC to adapt to evolving financial landscapes, particularly in the context of investment funds.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the primary regulator overseeing securities transactions in the United States. The agency’s jurisdiction covers registered investment companies and their operations, ensuring compliance with federal securities laws. The proposed amendments to the Investment Company Act’s cross-trading rule exemplify the SEC’s ongoing efforts to modernize regulations while enhancing investor protections.
Eyes on These Levels
Traders and market participants should closely monitor the SEC’s next steps regarding the proposed amendments. With potential changes to the cross-trading rule, there may be increased operational flexibility for registered funds. However, the effectiveness of enhanced investor protection measures will be crucial. Stakeholders should watch for public commentary on the proposal and any adjustments that may arise in response to industry feedback.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
Marcello Hernández has never been shy about turning his Cuban and Dominican upbringing into comedy. But during a new appearance on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, the Saturday Night Live star went beyond the punchlines, opening up about the cultural differences inside his own family, his mother’s complicated relationship with Cuba, and why performing comedy in Spanish has become especially meaningful to him.
The episode, released October 6, features Poehler sitting down with Hernández for a wide-ranging conversation about his Miami childhood, soccer, comedy, SNL, and his Latino identity. Fellow SNL cast member Sarah Sherman also appears in the episode.
Being raised by a Cuban mother and Dominican father gave him a front-row seat to two Caribbean cultures that share plenty of similarities
For Hernández, being raised by a Cuban mother and Dominican father gave him a front-row seat to two Caribbean cultures that share plenty of similarities but have distinct personalities of their own.
Marcello Hernández Explains Cuban and Dominican Cultural Differences
Poehler brought up Hernández’s background directly, telling him she loves hearing him discuss the differences between his mother’s Cuban culture and his father’s Dominican culture.
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Hernández started with something familiar. “The food is pretty much the same,” Hernández said before explaining that Cuban culture is more closely associated with salsa, while in the Dominican Republic, “they do merengue and bachata.”
He then demonstrated how the rhythms of the two cultures extend beyond music and into language.
Hernández explained that Cuban and Dominican Spanish can sound noticeably different, with Dominican Spanish coming across as “a little higher and faster.” He slipped between the accents during the conversation, giving Poehler a demonstration of the linguistic differences he grew up hearing.
Marcello Hernandez attends the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 14, 2026
Marcello Hernández Opens Up About His Cuban Mom
The conversation became more personal when Hernández discussed his mother’s experience leaving Cuba and eventually building a life in the United States. “My mom came from Cuba and it was difficult because they took her stuff,” Hernández told Poehler, referring to his mother’s experiences surrounding Cuba’s communist government.
According to Hernández, those experiences shaped the way his mother viewed her identity after coming to America. “When she came to America, she really leaned in to being American,” he explained. At one point, he recalled, she even talked about changing the family’s last name to Smith.
Marcello Hernandez and Amy Poehler at the 78th Emmy Awards
Hernández said his mother wanted to distance herself from what she had experienced in Cuba and embrace her new country. “She was so, like, sad and embarrassed of what happened in Cuba that she wanted to be fully American,” he said.
It is a revealing detail because Hernández’s career now puts his Latino heritage front and center. His comedy frequently embraces the accents, personalities, and experiences that shaped his childhood, even as his mother’s generation once felt pressure to assimilate.
How Marcello Hernández’s Family Inspired His Comedy
Hernández’s Cuban-Dominican background has been part of his comedy since his earliest days on Saturday Night Live.
During his first “Weekend Update” appearance in 2022, Hernández introduced himself with a joke that quickly established exactly where he came from: “My mom is from Cuba. And my dad is from the Dominican Republic. So obviously, they’re divorced.”
Cuban and Dominican descent actor Marcello Hernandez joins the cast of ‘Saturday Night Live’
Since then, family and Latino identity have remained recurring themes in his comedy. His protective Latina mother sketch with Pedro Pascal drew from a dynamic Hernández knew well, and his mother has repeatedly been cited as an influence on his work.
Hernández has previously said that his Cuban and Dominican roots are inseparable from his material. “I definitely feel very connected to my Cuban and my Dominican roots,” he said in an earlier interview, adding that being from Miami is “a huge part of my comedy.”
Marcello Hernández Loves Performing Comedy in Spanish
One of the most interesting parts of Hernández’s Good Hang conversation came when Poehler asked whether he believes he is funnier in Spanish. His answer was immediate: “Yeah.”
“I’m fast in Spanish,” Hernández explained, revealing that he has also been performing stand-up in Spanish and doing some touring in the language. “And it is so fun.”
There may even be some disagreement over which version of Hernández is funniest. “My family, my girlfriend, my dad, they think that I’m better in Spanish,” he said.
Hernández also spoke about the evolving world of Spanish-language stand-up, pointing to a new generation of comedians working in the space while acknowledging the performers who came before them.
He described the contrast between traditional Spanish-language comedy, which could involve longer stories or political characters, and the fast, observational style familiar to American stand-up audiences. Bringing that punchier approach into an all-Spanish room can feel fresh, he suggested.
Marcello Hernandez during the “El Chavo Del Ocho” sketch.
For Hernández, however, performing in Spanish is about more than getting laughs. “When I’m, like, doing a Spanish set with all Hispanic people and we’re all laughing,” Hernández said, “it feels very powerful.”
He specifically connected that feeling to the current climate for Latino communities, saying that gathering in a room where everyone can laugh and express themselves in Spanish carries extra weight.
Amy Poehler and Marcello Hernández Talk Latino Representation
Poehler also praised the current SNL cast for bringing different voices and experiences to the show, describing that variety as important to keeping the long-running sketch series reflective of its time.
That prompted Hernández to sum up the moment with a simple declaration: “Latinos are having a moment.”
“We’re having a moment,” he added. “Let us have a moment.”
The Miami-born comedian joined Saturday Night Live in 2022 and quickly became known for bringing bilingual humor and distinctly Latino characters into some of the show’s most memorable sketches. His comedy draws heavily from growing up with a Cuban mother, a Dominican father and the particular cultural mix of Miami.
For about 24 hours, it was believed that a highly venomous snake might be slithering about a Santa Ana neighborhood after police announced a sighting on Monday, Sept. 28. But on Tuesday, Sept. 29, the police revealed the sighting was a hoax concocted with an AI-generated image of a snake in a tree.
Santa Ana police had doubts about the image even as officers and reptile experts canvassed the neighborhood Monday looking for the reported Gaboon viper, officials said.
The department attempted to verify whether the image was generated by artificial intelligence, while reptile experts also pointed out apparent problems with the image, police spokesperson Natalie Garcia said. Among them were the snake’s positioning in the tree and what appeared to be an ear on the animal, even though snakes do not have external ears.
But police still could not definitively establish Monday that the report was false, according to Garcia.
With residents continuing to express concern Tuesday including many suspecting the photo was fake, detectives went to the workplace of the man who reported the snake to ask him for additional information, Garcia said. During that interview, the man admitted he had fabricated the report and image.
Garcia declined to detail the explanation the man gave detectives for the hoax. She said he attempted to justify what he had done and appeared remorseful, but investigators were no longer certain which of his statements they could trust.
The man’s initial account included details that appeared to lend credibility to the sighting, she said. He told police that his dogs’ barking prompted him to go outside and investigate, and his son claimed to have seen the snake as well, Garcia said. Neighbors also told police the man came to their homes after the purported sighting and appeared pale as he described what had happened.
Police initially did not plan to seek charges, Garcia said. After the man admitted the report had been fabricated, however, detectives decided to seek a charge of making a false report of an emergency.
On Wednesday, Garcia declined to say what tool the department used to try and verify if the snake image was real or generated by AI. Prior to confirming the image was a hoax, Santa Ana police said they had run the image through AI generators and had not been able to confirm that it was produced by AI.
OpenAI’s photo verification tool did show that the photo was either generated or enhanced by AI when submitted for verification by this publication.
So how reliable are generative AI verification tools?
The tools currently available are not entirely accurate, said Dr. Karen North, professor of digital social media at USC’s Annenberg School.
In the past few years, some major AI players, including Google and OpenAI, have released photo verification tools based on SynthID watermarks. SynthID embeds “digital watermarks” into content produced by generative AI. These watermarks are designed to be imperceptible to humans but detectable by SynthID technology, according to Google.
But North said these watermarks are not always reliable and are not detecting AI, but rather the likelihood of AI, using algorithmic mechanisms.
“The way that AI works is that it generates sort of the most obvious, the most mundane, the most likely content,” North said. “And the AI detectors do that in reverse. They look to see whether or not what was created, whether it’s a picture or words, was created in a way that sort of looks like a buildout of the most likely version.”
Verification tools can produce both false negatives and false positives when flagging AI content. North herself has tested AI detection in essays and found that some content is detected at 100% AI, even when written fully by a human. These inaccurate readings can happen when AI detects an algorithmic pattern that is similar to that of AI in text or photos, even if AI was not used.
But OpenAI claimed that false positives in their AI photo detection software are rare, though the company acknowledged that there are limitations to its SynthID watermark. Stripping metadata or degrading the watermark could lead to a false negative read in an AI verification tool, and OpenAI claimed that its verification tool only works with content created with OpenAI products.
North described an AI detector as a tool that “will give us a pretty good heads up that something looks like the kind of content that was generated by AI.”
But people should also rely on the uncanny valley theory, she says — the idea that people will get an eerie feeling when something they see simply feels off. Often, there are small elements in the background or context of AI-generated photos that feel unnatural or make viewers uncomfortable.
“On some level, we should trust that eerie feeling that there’s something wrong, that there’s something that doesn’t look quite right,” North said. “That’s also a heads up that you should take a breath before trusting what you’re seeing.”
In the case of the snake in Santa Ana, OpenAI’s photo verification tool did show that the photo was either generated or enhanced by AI when submitted for verification by this publication.
