Viral claim: Google’s AI analyzed 10,000 Bigfoot sightings and found unexplainable pattern. There’s just one problem with that

A viral claim online says that Google’s DeepMind analyzed 10,000 Bigfoot sightings and found an unexplainable pattern. But there is no evidence that such a study ever took place. The story gained traction through a YouTube video from a channel called AI Discovery, and was later reposted on TikTok.

The video claims that researchers fed decades of Sasquatch evidence into a machine learning model, which was designed to detect patterns without any preconceptions. According to the video, the AI identified 150 geographic hot zones that supposedly connect to the controversial Missing 411 book series.

DeepMind did not announce, publish, or take part in any project involving Bigfoot. The story appears to be made up, playing on people’s fascination with the unexplained, reports Brobible. The idea of using advanced AI to solve a century-old mystery sounds interesting, but it simply has not happened here.

The Bigfoot debate is very much alive, and modern technology has done little to settle it

For decades, people have tracked reports of large, hairy, hominoid figures across North America. The Bigfoot Society Podcast has been cataloging reports, including a notable surge of sightings in Portage County, Ohio, during March 2026. The podcast’s host, Jeremiah Byron, noted that while some reports he received were clearly fake AI-generated emails.

He felt the firsthand accounts he investigated were genuine expressions of people who were genuinely startled by their experiences. Mike Miller, a member of the Ohio Night Stalkers, has been searching for Bigfoot for nearly two decades and believes that mainstream science often overlooks these phenomena. 

On the other side is Benjamin Radford, a folklorist and deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine. Radford takes a strictly scientific approach, pointing out that if these creatures were real, there would be physical evidence, such as remains, given the thousands that would need to exist to sustain a population. 

This kind of uncritical belief in AI-generated content is also raising concerns in other areas, as seen in the case of a man who accused his family of being Satanic after he could not stop talking to an AI. Even the FBI once looked into the mystery, agreeing in 1976 to examine 15 hair samples from an alleged encounter in Oregon. The samples were concluded to be of deer family origin. 

Despite such scientific findings, the legend has continued to live on, fueled by pop culture and viral stories. According to CNN, Portage County Sheriff Bruce D. Zuchowski previously shared satirical posts about the arrest of Bigfoot, which still led to actual calls from residents who thought they had seen the creature.

The recent AI-focused claim is just the latest chapter in this long-running story. The idea that an AI could process geographic coordinates, weather conditions, and terrain types to reveal hidden truths is compelling to many people. However, data points used in these types of claims are often just correlations that mirror population density or how accessible a wilderness area is. 

As one commenter on the viral video pointed out, the alleged hot zones might just correspond to known cave systems or simply where more people live and hike. The allure of Bigfoot lies in the mystery itself. While AI is changing how we analyze data in almost every other field, it has not yet turned up a real-life Sasquatch. 

AI going wrong is not limited to misinformation, either; there have been growing worries about AI toys giving children harmful advice about sex and weapons. As Radford often says, he would be first in line if someone actually found one, but for now, “the evidence just isn’t there.”