A promotional video released by FBI Director Kash Patel features clips nearly identical to the Beastie Boys' 1994 "Sabotage" music video, alongside an instrumental version of the song.
The roughly two-minute video, posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, promotes FBI efforts against fraud and has received approximately half a million views as of Tuesday.
A deep-dive analysis by NPR identified at least six clips that are frame-by-frame recreations of shots from the original video directed by Spike Jonze. The footage intercuts these recreated scenes with authentic-looking FBI operational video.
Key discrepancies in the video—such as missing grilles in car windows and a telephone line appearing to pass through a character's head—suggest the clips were generated by artificial intelligence.
Independent experts confirmed the AI origin. Kolina Koltai of Bellingcat and Hany Farid of UC Berkeley stated the clips were likely created by feeding original footage into an image-to-video model, or because the original video was part of the AI's training data.
This is not an isolated incident. The Trump administration has previously used AI to alter or generate content featuring popular music and imagery without permission. Examples include President Trump posting an AI-generated video set to Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" and the White House posting an AI-doctored image of a protestor.
Representatives for Spike Jonze and the Beastie Boys did not respond to NPR's requests for comment. The FBI also did not respond.