Police Blame A.I. For ‘Evil’ Cat In The Hat That Sparked Panic After Footage Went Viral In Ireland And The U.K.

The internet managed to spawn plenty of viral hoaxes well before A.I. made it easier than ever to perpetrate one. It appears that technology is responsible for a new panic in the United Kingdom after police launched an investigation into some creepy photos and videos featuring someone dressed as the Cat in the Hat.

The Cat in the Hat first appeared in the 1957 Dr. Seuss book of the same name, a cautionary tale about the potential perils of letting a massive feline and his assistants of unknown origin make their way into your house when your parents leave you home alone.

There was nothing particularly scary about the Cat in the Hat. However, the same can’t be said for the version Mike Myers played in the adaptation that came out in 2003, a nightmarish fever dream that horrified the author’s widow to the point where she refused to let Hollywood give any of her husband’s work the live-action treatment after it was released.

That character has also managed to cause a bit of a stir overseas, as it’s responsible for the latest cautionary tale about not believing everything you see on the internet.

A.I.-generated videos of an “evil” Cat in the Hat have managed to rile people up in Ireland and the United Kingdom

In 2016, a number of so-called “killer clowns” caused a panic after pictures of one roaming the streets of Green Bay, Wisconsin in the middle of the night spawned copycats that quickly started to pop up around the world.

That phenomenon emerged at a time when you actually had to don a clown costume and wander into public if you wanted to freak people out, but it’s much easier to cause a similar frenzy nowadays thanks to artificial intelligence.

According to the BBC, A.I. appears to be the primary culprit in a new trend that’s riled up plenty of people in the British Isles, as a number of videos and photos have made the rounds thanks to the unnerving Cat and the Hat at the center of them.

The outlet reports the phenomenon was initially centered around the counties of Limerick and Wexford in Ireland, and police in the latter responded to the reports by saying all evidence points to the videos being created by A.I.

The “sightings” started to spread into the United Kingdom, and South Yorkshire Police also issued a statement after someone on TikTok claimed they were investigating the matter, saying:

“To confirm, we have not had any reports of a cat in a hat in Meadowhall, or anywhere else in South Yorkshire for that matter.

If you do see posts online providing policing updates and advice, please check that they are from an official policing account. The cat is not out of the hat on this one… Please don’t believe everything you read on social media.”

We live in some marvelously dumb times.