Indonesian oil executive fragment “Proof gasoline mixing plan” carries AI logo
After the Indonesian Attorney General's office announced the arrest of several oil executives on suspicion of corruption, video shows one of the men proved that high-quality gasoline was diluted online. But the visual error in the video suggests that it was generated using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
“That’s how Pertamina’s CEO mixes pertalite and pertamax together,” Indonesian language text overlays the video shared on Tiktok on February 28, 2025. “Mix Pertalite and Pertamax together, how Pertamina CEO makes his illegal gains.”
The clip shows a man pouring green liquid from a container marked “pertalite” with blue liquid marked “pertamax”. Both are brand names for gasoline sold by state-owned energy company PT Pertamina.
Screenshot of fake post, captured on March 3, 2025
The Indonesian Attorney General's Office said the Post arrested executives of the PT Pertamina subsidiary on February 25, allegedly a $12 billion graft case (a link to archive).
It said in a statement that seven suspects, including at least four Pertamina officials, were arrested.
They are accused of working together between 2018 and 2023 to import crude oil from overseas suppliers at higher prices, rather than domestic sources under Indonesian law.
The Attorney General’s Office (archive link) said the case also involved a “not allowed” gasoline mixing process.
This will respect the investigation, Pertamina said in a statement.
Similar videos have received over 16 million views on X, Snackvideo and Tiktok.
“The suspects of corruption showed us how to mix gasoline, why is Pertamina still making excuses?” one user wrote, seemingly thinking the clip was real.
Another said: “It turns out they did the mix themselves.”
Visual error
The watermark in the upper right corner of the video shows that it was created using pixverse.ai, which, according to its YouTube profile, is a generated AI model that can “convert” text prompts and images “turn into amazing videos” in minutes (archived here and here).
On February 27, a YouTube search on YouTube showed a video report from broadcaster Kompas, showing similar scenarios, but without the supposed gasoline mixing parts (archive link).
Screenshot comparison between fake posts (L) and Kompas TV clips
Antara News Agency's earlier reports included closely matched images. It determined that the man was Riva Siahaan, CEO of Pertamina's subsidiary, and left the Attorney General's building (archive Link) after being arrested.
The analysis of the video also found multiple visual errors. First, the man's handcuffs suddenly disappeared, showing him holding a container.
For two seconds, his hands were dipped in the green liquid without getting wet. When he poured the liquid into another container, it didn't seem to be full.
While there is no foolproof way to discover AI-generated media, identifying watermarks and visual inconsistencies can help, because despite rapid progress in the generated AI, errors still occur.
Screenshots of frames in video highlight visual errors
AFP has previously used AI-generated clips to debunk misinformation in Indonesia.
