Did FBI Director Kash Patel use AI to rip off the Beastie Boys?

Technology Did FBI Director Kash Patel use AI to rip off the Beastie Boys? May 5, 20261:15 PM ET Geoff Brumfiel A still from an FBI promotional video (left) bears a strong resemblance to the opening shot of the original 1994 music video for the Beastie Boy's "Sabotage" (right). NPR found at least six examples where shots in the FBI video matched those in music video. Experts say the most likely explanation is that AI-was used to re-create the shots. Screenshots by Emily Bogle for NPR/X and YouTube hide caption toggle caption Screenshots by Emily Bogle for NPR/X and YouTube A promotional video for the FBI posted by director Kash Patel appears to have used AI to generate short clips nearly identical to those in the Beastie Boy's iconic music video for their 1994 classic song "Sabotage." Patel released the video on Monday on X, in a post about the FBI's effort to combat "massive fraud." The roughly-two minute video used the instrumental version of the song "Sabotage," and footage nearly identical to the original music video, interspersed with what appeared to be authentic footage of FBI agents conducting their work. Sponsor Message With President Trump’s leadership, this @FBI and our interagency partners are conducting massive fraud takedowns coast to coast - and we’re not stopping pic.twitter.com/lLAY4nSsQa— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) May 4, 2026 By Tuesday it had received roughly half-a-million views. An analysis by NPR shows at least six clips in the FBI video were frame-by-frame recreations of shots in the iconic "Sabotage" music video, which was directed by Spike Jonze. The clips featured vehicles, people and buildings that were incredibly similar to the original video, but with small differences that would likely be generated by AI. For example, in one shot where a car is spinning out, grilles are clearly visible in some of the windows in the original footage, but they are missing in the FBI version of the clip. Another shot shows an individ...