Western Australia already offers the experiences AI is inventing.
AI videos inaccurately depicting Australia have been spreading across social media, and Western Australian locals are not happy.
The page Australia Hidden Gems depicted the Kimberley’s Devonian limestone reef with crocodiles floating 50 metres above sea level and created a fictitious “cliffside retreat” along Lake Argyle — a video that drew more than 600,000 views online.
The video is captioned ‘this hidden gem in the Kimberley is a cliffside retreat featuring a 35-meter infinity pool, rugged red rock ranges, and panoramic views of a vast inland sea,’ and features a panning shot across an entirely fabricated place.
The thing is, there is a resort in the region that features an infinity pool and cabin accommodation: Argyle Resort. But it is not the location featured in the video.
Another AI account, Aussie AI Lens, depicts an avatar of an Indigenous person describing pearling history around Broome and the Torres Strait Islands.
Broome local and Yawuru man Bart Pigram responded to the video, saying: “I cringe when I see AI-generated things selling Broome as something that it’s not … it’s fake, untrue, and it’s lacking integrity.”
Pigram, who worked in Broome’s tourism sector for years, warned that the video was inauthentic in its portrayal of Indigenous history.
He said AI will be “…a challenge heading into the future when we’re trying to preserve the authenticity of our culture and language.”
Not only is it inaccurate, but it is also unethical and offensive to create a fabricated video rather than allow the First Nations people of the region to tell their own story.
For a moment, I wondered whether this was some elaborate marketing scheme designed to generate headlines for WA tourism.
But when you visit these pages, all of Australia is depicted through AI — people and landscapes blended together into caricatured imagery that exists solely to generate likes and comments.
To me, the influx of AI-generated tourism content feels rooted in laziness: a reluctance to do research, speak to sources, or engage with the places being depicted.
Instead, it’s about creating attention-grabbing clickbait.
The most frustrating part is that none of it is necessary. Australia is already photogenic and worthy of exploration.
Inventing fake landscapes and histories to attract attention says more about the creators’ pursuit of engagement than it does about the country itself.
It’s a shame that the country – and the people whose stories are being misrepresented – get caught in the crossfire.
