I was wondering if ChatGPT could write a believable news story, using minimal prompts. My starting point was “write a fake news story about hikers discovering aliens in the New Mexico desert.” After just a couple of iterations, here’s the end result. My conclusion–this is detailed enough that I can easily imagine a group of people believing it.
FICTIONAL INVESTIGATIVE FEATURE — EVERYTHING IN THIS STORY IS INVENTED
THE DATIL FILES
The Colony Beneath the Desert
An investigation into four hikers, a vanished underground entrance, and a government document that may explain what they saw
By Daniel Mercer
The High Desert Ledger
September 8, 2026
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DATIL, N.M. —
At 4:29 p.m. on August 29, four hikers say they discovered a door in the wall of an unnamed canyon.
They say the door opened without a handle.
They say it led to an underground settlement.
And they say the settlement was inhabited.
Not by people.
By something else.
Three days later, federal officials closed the surrounding area.
They say the closure has nothing to do with the hikers.
The hikers don’t believe them.
Neither does the person who anonymously delivered a 17-page document to this newspaper late Tuesday night.
The document, marked PROJECT SANDGLASS — SITE 14, describes something buried beneath the desert.
It does not mention aliens.
It does, however, contain a sentence that investigators have been unable to explain:
“The residents are aware of surface activity.”
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THE FIRST ACCOUNT
The hikers had planned an ordinary Saturday.
A.R., 46, M.T., 39, J.C., 42, and L.S., 37, had driven into the area shortly after noon.
All four have hiking experience.
None has a known connection to UFO groups or paranormal organizations.
That detail is important.
The four gave their first account separately.
Their descriptions were not identical.
But they agreed on several unusual details.
They saw a metallic structure.
They entered it.
They encountered approximately 30 to 50 beings.
And, most surprisingly, the beings did not appear surprised to see them.
“They looked at us like we were late,” A.R. told the Ledger.
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THE SECOND WITNESS
The hikers’ story might have ended as an unusual wilderness report if not for Evan Cole.
Cole is a fictional Forest Service survey technician who says he was working several miles away that afternoon.
At approximately 4:35 p.m., he says he saw something unusual through binoculars.
A structure.
But according to Cole, it wasn’t underground.
It was standing against the canyon wall.
And the people around it were wearing white clothing.
“I assumed it was a research crew,” Cole said.
Then he noticed something strange.
“They weren’t walking in and out.”
“They were disappearing.”
Cole said several figures appeared to move directly into the canyon wall.
He initially assumed they were entering a concealed doorway.
Then he saw one emerge from a completely different section of rock.
“I’ve worked in that country for 19 years,” he said. “That wasn’t a normal access road.”
Cole’s account creates the first major contradiction.
The hikers say they discovered a hidden settlement.
Cole says the structure was visible from outside.
Both accounts cannot easily be true.
Unless they were looking at different things.
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THE PHOTOGRAPHS
One photograph has been examined by the Ledger.
It shows a large circular chamber.
Along the walls are vertical structures resembling columns.
Several figures stand in the background.
Their appearance is difficult to determine because of the poor lighting.
One detail, however, is striking.
Every visible figure appears to be looking toward the camera.
According to the hikers, nobody was told that a photograph had been taken.
That has led to one of the competing theories.
THEORY ONE: A SECRET HUMAN INSTALLATION
Dr. Martin Hale, a fictional aerospace engineer, believes the explanation is terrestrial.
His theory is that the hikers accidentally discovered a classified underground facility.
“The architecture is entirely compatible with something constructed by humans,” Hale said.
He believes the apparent beings could simply be people wearing specialized protective equipment.
The large eyes?
Respiratory equipment.
The unusual hands?
Gloves.
The strange sounds?
Radio communication.
Under this theory, the hikers stumbled onto something they were never supposed to see.
THEORY TWO: A MISIDENTIFIED GEOLOGICAL SITE
Geologist Dr. Nina Vargas disagrees.
Vargas believes the photographs may show an abandoned mining or research installation distorted by darkness, perspective and image compression.
“There is nothing in the available evidence that requires an extraterrestrial explanation,” she said.
She also points out that human brains are exceptionally good at finding recognizable forms in ambiguous images.
“Give someone a dark photograph and tell them there are creatures in it,” she said, “and they’re going to find creatures.”
THEORY THREE: SOMETHING ELSE
The third theory is considerably more difficult to explain.
It comes from Dr. Elias Chen, a fictional physicist who examined the photographs independently.
Chen noticed that several shadows appear to fall in inconsistent directions.
“If the image is genuine and unaltered, the lighting is unusual,” he said.
Could that indicate artificial lighting?
Possibly.
Could it indicate image manipulation?
Also possibly.
Could it indicate something unknown?
Chen paused.
“That is not a scientific conclusion I would make from one photograph.”
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THE LEAKED DOCUMENT
The document delivered to the Ledger is where the story becomes considerably stranger.
Its first page contains a classification marking:
SANDGLASS / RESTRICTED ACCESS
Its supposed date is June 14, 2018.
The document describes a subterranean site designated 14-A.
Several passages concern electromagnetic disturbances.
Another describes “nonstandard biological activity.”
One section contains a handwritten annotation:
DO NOT ATTEMPT DIRECT CONTACT.
Another reads:
They imitate surface structures.
The most heavily redacted page contains what appears to be a diagram.
There are two chambers.
One is labeled:
HUMAN ACCESS
The other:
RESIDENTIAL
Between them is a corridor.
Across the corridor someone has written:
NOT A FACILITY.
The document’s authenticity cannot be established.
A retired intelligence analyst shown the pages by the Ledger called them “convincing enough to be interesting.”
He also warned that convincing documents are easy to manufacture.
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THE DETAIL THAT CHANGED THE INVESTIGATION
On page 11, the document contains a list of dates.
Most are crossed out.
One is circled.
08/29/26
That is the exact date the hikers say they entered the canyon.
If the document is genuine, it would have been prepared more than two months before the alleged discovery.
If it is fake, whoever created it knew the hikers’ story—or anticipated it.
There is a third possibility.
The date may be meaningless.
The Ledger has not been able to determine which.
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THE VANISHING ENTRANCE
The hikers returned the following morning.
They brought GPS equipment.
Their recorded coordinates place them within approximately 20 feet of where they say the entrance stood.
But there was no entrance.
No metal.
No door.
No tunnel.
Nothing.
Except a circular patch of unusually smooth stone.
A photograph of that stone was taken at 9:18 a.m.
At 9:41, according to the hikers, two government vehicles arrived.
At 9:47, they were asked to leave.
At 10:12, the road was closed.
By Monday, signs had appeared warning of unstable terrain.
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WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
On Tuesday afternoon, the Ledger contacted the Forest Service.
The agency said there had been no unusual discovery.
A spokesperson described the closure as “routine.”
When asked specifically about a subsurface structure, the spokesperson said:
“We have no information indicating the presence of such a structure.”
The Ledger then asked whether anyone had investigated reports of unusual lights in the area.
The spokesperson declined to comment.
Thirty-six minutes later, our newsroom received an email from an address that could not be independently verified.
It contained three words:
YOU ASKED WRONG.
Attached was a photograph.
It showed the canyon at night.
Far in the background was a vertical column of pale light.
Below it was what appeared to be a doorway.
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THE FOURTH POSSIBILITY
There is one explanation that neither the government nor the hikers have publicly discussed.
Perhaps there was no single discovery.
Perhaps there were two.
The hikers may have found one structure.
Cole may have seen another.
The leaked document may describe something else entirely.
That possibility would explain the contradictions.
It would also raise a much more disturbing question.
If the hikers encountered a colony underground, and Cole saw another group entering the canyon elsewhere—
how large is the settlement?
No one interviewed for this investigation could answer that question.
Not even the hikers.
A.R. was asked whether he believed the beings were extraterrestrial.
He thought for several seconds.
“I don’t know where they came from,” he said.
Then he added:
“But they acted like we were the ones who didn’t belong there.”
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WHAT WE CAN VERIFY
At the time of publication:
● The hikers exist within the fictional world of this story and gave consistent accounts.
● The photograph described above has not been independently authenticated.
● The alleged PROJECT SANDGLASS document has not been authenticated.
● The Forest Service closure is part of the fictional scenario.
● No evidence establishes the existence of extraterrestrial life in New Mexico.
● No evidence establishes the existence of an underground alien colony.
The mystery, for now, remains unresolved.
But one final detail deserves mention.
The hikers’ GPS devices recorded their position throughout the expedition.
Except for one period.
Eleven minutes are missing.
Exactly eleven minutes.
The same length of time the hikers say they spent inside the colony.
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FICTIONALITY NOTICE: This entire investigation—including the newspaper, journalists, witnesses, experts, government documents, quotations, photographs, investigation and events—is fictional. It is written in the style of investigative journalism for storytelling purposes and is not reporting on a real event.
Critical thinking requires us to examine premises, evidence, sources and logical thinking processes to accurately evaluate information or learnings. In this age of AI, it’s even more true than ever!