Google’s Veo 3 just changed everything. The world isn’t ready for this.

At Google I/O 2025 on May 20, something truly jaw-dropping happened. Google unveiled Veo 3, its latest AI video tool that can create ultra-realistic 8-second videos—and the internet hasn’t been the same since.

Just hours after the announcement, AI creators started posting clips that felt so real, you’d swear they were filmed with a camera. You might have even scrolled past one on your feed without realizing it was made entirely by AI.

Let’s be honest: we’ve never seen anything quite like Veo 3. It’s thrilling, it’s unsettling—and it's only getting more powerful.

Experts have been warning us for years that a time would come when AI videos would be nearly impossible to tell apart from real ones. With Veo 3, that time has arrived. We’re officially beyond the “uncanny valley” now. These videos don’t just look good—they feel real.

Sure, other tools like OpenAI’s Sora are already out there, but Veo 3 instantly grabs your attention. It doesn’t just generate stunning visuals—it adds sound, voices, and even natural conversations. The characters stay consistent across videos, and creators can control every detail, from the camera angle to how the scene flows. It’s not just photorealistic—it's cinematic.

People online are stunned. Some are amazed, others a little freaked out. Many are both.

You can try Veo 3 now if you're on one of Google’s paid AI plans. It’s available in Gemini, Google’s chatbot, and also in Flow—Google’s new video creation app designed specifically for creatives.

Already, we’re seeing short films made with Veo 3 pop up online. At this rate, it won’t be long before someone makes a full-length movie with nothing but AI.

Meet the filmmakers bringing short films to life with Veo 3

Scroll through X, YouTube, Instagram, or Reddit, and you might come across a video so strikingly real, you won’t stop to question if it’s AI-generated. That’s the magic people are discovering with Veo 3.

One short film that’s been capturing a lot of attention is Influenders, created by Yonatan Dor, the founder of The Dor Brothers, an AI visual studio. The video tells a clever story: a group of influencers reacts to a mysterious disaster unfolding behind them. It’s a wild mix of humor, chaos, and eerily believable visuals—and it's been watched hundreds of thousands of times across social media.

“Yes, we used Google’s Veo 3 to create it,” Dor shared in an email with Mashable. “But to really make it feel alive, we had to add extra sound design, careful editing, and some final touch-ups like upscaling.” The whole process took about two days from start to finish. “Veo 3 is a huge leap forward,” Dor added. “It’s honestly the most powerful tool we’ve ever used. The way it understands prompts and handles dialogue is seriously impressive.”

Other creators are also making waves with Veo 3. Artists like Alex Patrascu and Impekable have gone viral with their street-style videos, showcasing just how realistic and creative this tech can be. Even a Wall Street Journal reporter joined in, starring in a short film with a virtual version of herself—made entirely with Veo 3—in just ten days.

Of course, not every moment looks 100% real. Some clips still have that slightly glossy, AI-ish sheen or awkward camera shakes that give away their origins—kind of like the digital version of a telltale sign. But compared to a few years ago, when AI videos often featured people with six fingers or bizarre faces, this feels like a whole new era.

If things keep advancing like this, it might not be long before we can’t tell the difference between a real video and one dreamed up by a machine.

A Tool for Creativity—and for Confusion

When Google introduced Veo 3, it made a big deal about working with famous creatives like filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. And honestly, it’s easy to see why. This new AI tool has the potential to totally change how animation and special effects are made—making them faster, cheaper, and more accessible to regular creators, not just big studios.

But there’s another side to this coin. The same technology that can help bring imaginative stories to life could just as easily be used by shady content farms or bad actors to pump out fake news and emotional clickbait. It’s both exciting and a little terrifying.

We asked Google how it plans to stop Veo 3 from being misused to spread misinformation. In response, the company pointed to built-in safety features like digital watermarks.

“It’s important for people to have ways to check where videos and content are coming from,” a Google DeepMind spokesperson told Mashable in an email. “All videos made with Google’s AI tools have an invisible SynthID watermark. We also just launched a detector for early testing, and soon, we’ll be adding a visible watermark to Veo videos, too.”

Google says it follows strict AI safety rules and wants to help people use and recognize AI-generated content responsibly.

A screenshot from an AI-generated video made by Google with Veo 3. Credit: Google

But let’s be honest—how often does the average person pause while scrolling and ask, “Wait… is this even real?” Not very often. The emotional support kangaroo that went viral recently is proof of that.

There’s no question that AI videos are about to flood our feeds. Some will be silly or pointless, sure. But others? They’ll be crafted to manipulate, deceive, or stir up outrage. And even though tools like Veo 3 come with built-in safeguards, skilled creators can still use AI to make deepfakes of celebrities or politicians that look scarily real. One trend already popping up in Veo 3 videos? Fake news anchors delivering fake reports straight to the camera. It’s creepy—and it raises serious concerns about what we can believe online.

If you haven’t started asking yourself, “Is this real?” every time you watch a video online… now’s the time to start.

Or, as people are saying all over X (formerly Twitter), “We’re so cooked.”