Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a live press conference to address circulating claims that he had died, opening his remarks by stating 'I am alive' and telling the assembled reporters they were all witnesses to that fact. The appearance came amid a weeks-long cycle of social media speculation, deepfake allegations, and death rumours that has intensified during the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict, and which Netanyahu and his team have repeatedly attempted to put to rest.
The controversy escalated after AI chatbot Grok flagged an earlier video of Netanyahu at a coffee shop as a possible deepfake, describing it as 'AI-generated' based on what it identified as an unnatural lip sync and a static coffee level in the frame. That assessment circulated widely online and, rather than settling the matter, intensified scrutiny of subsequent footage released by Netanyahu's office.
