Debunked: Viral video of robotic head transplant exposed as a hoax

A company named BrainBridge, claiming to be a medical science company, has gone viral with a video showcasing a groundbreaking idea: a system for conducting head transplants.

However, despite its viral popularity, the video has been debunked as fake.

In the video, which has gained significant attention online, robots are depicted performing the procedure. But that video is fake, as many news media outlets have covered it.

Originally, the MIT Technology Review reported that this was a fake video. On their website, they wrote a story titled “That viral video showing a head transplant is a fake. But it might become real someday.” 

🤖 BrainBridge, the first head transplant system, uses robotics and AI for head and face transplants, offering hope to those with severe conditions like stage-4 cancer and neurodegenerative diseases… pic.twitter.com/7qBYtdlVOo

— Tansu Yegen (@TansuYegen) May 21, 2024

In the story, they said, 'We can report that BrainBridge is not a real company—it’s not incorporated anywhere. The video was made by Hashem Al-Ghaili, a Yemeni science communicator and film director who in 2022 made a viral video called “EctoLife,” about artificial wombs, that also left journalists scrambling to determine if it was real or not.'"

The video got a lot of attention on social media. On the X platform, it got 10.5 million views and many comments. 

One user commented on the video, saying, “It’s interesting that they can potentially change a head but not cure cancer...”

Another user asked, “What happens when you put an 80-year-old head on a 14-year-old kid?”

Another user expressed concern saying, “Young people are about to start going missing to keep some old money and their family forever young.”

And yet another user simply stated, “It’s just a concept for now, not a real product.”