Venezuela's Communications Minister Freddy Ñáñez is claiming a video of the U.S. striking a boat in the Caribbean is AI-generated. CBS News' Charlie D'Agata has more details after President Trump said that the U.S. military struck an apparent Venezuelan vessel carrying drugs.

Caracas

The Venezuelan government has accused the United States of using artificial intelligence to fabricate a video that allegedly shows a US military strike on a boat linked to drug trafficking. US officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have rejected these claims, asserting that the footage is real and was observed live.

The incident has intensified scrutiny of US military operations in the region, with the deployment of significant naval forces and ongoing questions about the broader objectives of the mission. While the Pentagon has denied that regime change is the goal, the situation has raised concerns about misinformation and the use of AI in international conflicts.

Venezuela suggests video of boat apparently carrying drugs is AI

The Venezuelan government has accused the White House of using AI to generate the video that you're seeing right now on your screens. President Trump says it shows a strike on a narco-terrorist that the U.S. military claims killed 11 people. CBS News senior national security correspondent Charlie Daggett joins us now from Washington, D.C. I feel like, Charlie, we're going to hear a lot of world leaders suggesting that the videos that we're looking at are AI-generated, which is why it's so critical for you, your team and other journalists on the ground to tell us what we know about this operation. So what have we learned? In terms of the operation itself, Vlad, precious little. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was in an interview earlier today. He was asked, you know, how was this conducted, because it's one of the things we want to know, right? He said, that's classified. And I think I should paint the picture that although there is a lot of, especially U.S. Navy hardware in that region, in operations like this, there are always sort of Overwatch or special forces that might be involved. And just me taking a look at that from my experience, it's kind of hard to tell. It could be a drone strike. It could be something that was fired from an aircraft. It could even be surface-to-surface. Again, Defense Secretary Hegseth pushed back against the whole AI idea, saying, no, we actually watched it live. But as you can see from those images, there are multiple images and multiple angles of that strike. So, obviously, the Pentagon and others doubling down, that what you're seeing is real. But I should also point out that when you send—you know, it's called a weapons package to a region like that, especially a region that isn't normally one of those concentrated areas like SOUTHCOM or Southern Command, you're going to have ISR, so you're going to have intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. So you're going to have eyes on that whole area, which means when they say, we identified that boat—they called it a ship—but when they identified that boat and fired on it, they would have a more enhanced understanding of that neighborhood. Yeah, I think it's just so fascinating. You've got the president of the United States yesterday suggesting that video that showed something getting thrown out of the White House window was AI. Yeah. Now you've got this—the leaders of Venezuela saying that the video that we're watching here is AI. So, I suspect, again, that there's going to be a lot of world leaders that are trying to either misinform the people or suggest that what actually happened didn't happen. I guess the bigger question is, what does this mean? Whether the Venezuelans are saying that it is what it is or isn't, how does this already impact the relationship between the U.S. and that country? Well, you know, President Trump called this the first strike. And I think it's important to listen to the president, because a lot of what's going on here, including putting that video out, it's about messaging. It's about sending a message to Venezuela itself, the country Venezuela, but also to drug traffickers in that region. And he said there's more to come. Now, where it starts to get a little bit murky is they've sent eight battleships. And these are forward battleships, including a Marine unit, a Marine expeditionary unit, like with landing craft. These are—this is an offensive team that's out there, not to defend necessarily the borders, but to launch attacks, if necessary, including three destroyers, a cruiser, etc., etc. Now, the question came up again today, is this about regime change, to try to get rid of the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro? That was put to one side. The Pentagon said, look, we're a planning organization. That is a White House decision. But certainly, it's something that they're considering. And whether this is about optics or whether it hasn't been decided yet, this might turn from a drug interdictory to something more serious. All right, Charlie Daggett, reporting from the Pentagon this morning. Charlie, thank you.

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Breakdown