Photos show Elon Musk in a fight during a science conference.
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Elon Musk and Governor of Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia Yasir Al-Rumayyan, third from right, listen as President Donald Trump speaks at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute summit in Miami Beach, Fla., Feb. 19, 2025. (AP)
No, Elon Musk didn’t get in a physical fight during a science conference
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The claim originated from a YouTube channel that shares fictional stories.
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Two of the photos appear to be generated with artificial intelligence. The third photo was taken Jan. 22, 2024, at a conference in Poland on antisemitism.
Did X owner Elon Musk get in a fistfight at a science conference? No, but images generated with artificial intelligence claim he did.
"Breaking News: Black man insults Elon Musk at science conference – Instantly regrets it when truth comes out!" said a Feb. 21 Facebook post that includes images of a man in a suit punching Musk and Musk with a bruised eye.
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)
The post linked to a blog saying that a scientist on Feb. 18 accused Musk of "stealing ideas from marginalized communities" during a conference in California’s Silicon Valley. The blog didn’t say that the two men got into a fistfight.
Musk didn’t have a black eye in photos of him taken Feb. 19 by The Associated Press in Florida.
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The blog post and two of its photos are fake. The photos of Musk fighting and bearing a bruised eye matched the thumbnail of a Dec. 10, 2024, YouTube video that had the same title as the blog and Facebook post’s caption. The YouTube account had a disclaimer saying that all its videos are "entirely fictional and crafted solely for entertainment."
The post’s first photo shows Musk at a conference on Jan. 22, 2024, about the rise of antisemitism in Poland.
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WasItAI, an AI image detector, found two of the Musk images were likely AI-generated. AI image detectors have limitations and are not always 100% accurate. Still, we noticed that in one photo, the man punching Musk has more than five fingers on one hand.
We searched Google and the Nexis news database for reports of Musk getting into a fight at a science conference and got no results from credible news sites.
We rate the claim that photos show Musk in a fight during a science conference False.
Our Sources
Facebook post (archived), Feb. 21, 2025
Amazing (archived), Breaking News: Black Man Insults Elon Musk At Science Conference – Instantly Regrets It When Truth Comes Out!, Feb. 21, 2025
YouTube, A Black Man Insults Elon Musk At a Science Conference – Instantly Regrets It When the Truth Hits!, Dec. 10, 2024
YouTube account, Moments of Grace, accessed Feb. 25, 2025
Alamy, Elon Musk of RPA attends the Conference European Jewish Association, Jan. 22, 2024
European Jewish Association, Auschwitz EJA Conference, accessed Feb. 25, 2025
The Associated Press Newsroom, Trump, Feb. 19, 2025
WasItAi, accessed Feb. 26, 2025
The New York Times, How Easy Is It to Fool A.I. - Detection Tools?, June 28, 2023
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No, Elon Musk didn’t get in a physical fight during a science conference
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