Santa Ana police say man admits AI snake hoax that prompted search

A man admitted using an artificial intelligence-generated image to falsely report a venomous snake in a Santa Ana backyard, prompting a search by police and reptile experts, according to NBC Los Angeles. Police said they planned to cite him for falsifying an emergency.

The report prompted a neighborhood search and a police social media warning that included the caller's image. The department said it had no dedicated system to conclusively identify AI-generated images and received conflicting assessments from the tools it used.

The caller reported a Gaboon viper in a backyard and supplied a photograph, NBC Los Angeles reported. Gaboon vipers are highly venomous snakes native to sub-Saharan Africa.

Officers and reptile experts searched the Santa Ana neighborhood Monday. Police also published the supplied image in an alert on social media.

The department said it suspected the image could be AI-generated before posting the warning. As reports spread online, police wanted to verify that no snake was present, according to NBC Los Angeles.

Santa Ana Police Department spokesperson Natalie Garcia said the department lacked a dedicated system that could definitively determine whether an image was AI-generated. The tools used to check this image disagreed, she said.

Garcia said Wednesday that detectives interviewed the man again at his workplace, where he eventually admitted the image was AI-generated. Police had not released his name.

Police said they planned to work with the district attorney's office to pursue charges, but NBC Los Angeles did not report that charges had been filed. Garcia initially said the motive was unknown, then said the man had offered a reason the department would not disclose.