Public Safety
Santa Ana snake scare traced to AI-generated image
Police say the man who reported a Gaboon viper admitted the image was fabricated, after officers and reptile experts searched the neighborhood for hours.
A report of a highly venomous Gaboon viper in a Santa Ana neighborhood was false and based on an AI-generated image, police said, according to a Los Angeles Times report updated September 29. Officers had warned residents after being told the snake was in a tree near Main Street and Edinger Avenue.
What it means locally
Santa Ana police said the person who made the report later admitted the image was AI-generated. Before that confirmation, officers and specialists from the Southern California Herpetology Association and Rescue searched the area for hours without finding a snake. Reptile experts had questioned the image because Gaboon vipers are heavy, ground-dwelling snakes and the picture showed one on a thin branch with visual inconsistencies. Police said they still had to investigate a possible public danger until the report was disproved. The accompanying photograph shows a Gaboon viper in a zoo in 2006 and is archival; it is not the fabricated image or evidence from the Santa Ana investigation.
Full report and further details: Read original report →