Popular post triggers Taiwan media misreport: Honoré climbing 101 photographer is Jin Guowei, media literacy faces challenges in the AI era

A digital creator mistakenly believed AI information claiming Jin Guowei was the live streaming photographer for Taipei 101, triggering a collective misreport by Taiwanese media. Upon verification, Jin Guowei was not on the live list. This incident highlights the risks of AI hallucinations and the importance of media verification literacy.

Popular Post Triggers Media Misreport: Hornerd Climbing Taipei 101 Photographer is Jin Guowei

Recently, extreme climber Alex Honnold’s live stream of free climbing Taipei 101 became a hot topic across Taiwan. Among his over 10,000 followers, digital creator Li Zheng (Li Zongying) posted a message and commented that the photographer for Honnold’s Taipei 101 climb was Oscar-winning director Jimmy Chin (Jin Guowei), describing his guessed filming actions and equipment details.

The post received over 7,700 likes and more than 500 shares. Later, several mainstream Taiwanese media outlets and a Hong Kong media cited it without thorough verification, mostly reporting with headlines like “Honnold Taipei 101 Photographer is Jin Guowei.”

As of the afternoon of January 28, some media have quietly deleted the posts, such as United News Network and Jusky Star, while Mirror News corrected the text to “The challenge at Taipei 101 was not directed by Jin Guowei.”

Subsequently, well-known film and TV fan pages “Invisible” and Howard Yang publicly corrected the misinformation. “Invisible” criticized mainstream media for seemingly citing unverified “AI fantasy articles” and lacking basic fact-checking before reporting; Howard Yang pointed out that the described filming equipment and the actual live content are completely inconsistent, and the accompanying images are suspected to be AI-generated, questioning the authenticity of the content.

Crypto City Verification: Jin Guowei is not the director or photographer for the live stream

Reviewing the controversial post, author Li Zongying claimed that Netflix used AI-generated images to boost the live stream’s popularity. There is currently no evidence supporting this; it is purely his personal speculation.

Crypto City further verified by examining the end credits of the Netflix live stream. The director of the Honnold Taipei 101 live stream is actually Joe Demaio, responsible for high-angle filming and directing is Brett Lowell, and the entire assistant director, drone, and climbing filming team do not include Jin Guowei’s name.

Additionally, Jin Guowei’s Facebook activity only shares photos taken in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. The photos of Honnold are old shots from a previous climb of El Capitan and do not provide any indirect evidence of his involvement in the Taipei 101 live filming.

The original poster admits to citing AI responses and not watching the live stream

In response to public questioning, Li Zongying earlier today (28) responded to the “Invisible” fan page’s accusations. He clarified that the post was not AI-generated but also admitted he did not watch the Taipei 101 climb live.

As for why he firmly claimed the photographer was Jin Guowei, Li Zongying said he simply asked the AI tool Gemini: “Jimmy Chin is the photographer for this Taipei 101 event in Taiwan?” After receiving a positive answer from Gemini, he shared this information with netizens.

He believes that the media, without verification, directly quoted social media discussions, and the responsibility should not be entirely attributed to his social media post.

The gradually widespread generative AI raises concerns about media literacy

According to the 2025 survey report published by the Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC), 43.19% of Taiwanese people are using generative AI.

While up to 57.11% of internet users believe they have the ability to verify information, in reality, more than 60% (65.91%) rarely or never actively fact-check, and only 13.6% often verify, showing a paradox of “high confidence, low action” in media literacy.

In contrast, Finland has incorporated media literacy into its national curriculum for decades, even designing teaching content for 3-year-old children to develop skills in analyzing media and recognizing false information. In response to the AI era, Finland is also working to include AI literacy in curricula to enhance the next generation’s ability to judge complex information environments.

Related reports:
A model for Taiwan? Finland teaches media literacy to children starting at age 3, including AI fake news detection

Challenges of Civic Media Literacy in the AI Era

The incident of “Taiwanese media misreporting that Honnold’s Taipei 101 live photographer is Jin Guowei” raises some questions worth pondering, such as the long-term lack of journalistic ethics and the habit of rushing to publish without verification; the long-standing deficiency in media literacy among the public, leading to over-trusting influencers or authorities; and despite AI still having hallucination issues, some still believe the answers AI provides, etc.

For the general public, the biggest lesson from this event might be that, in the future, when encountering information from influencers, media, or AI, one should first question and verify rather than believe outright. This could help reduce the risk of being misled by false information.