The Top 19 - an AI Collaboration
- Kari Thomas
- Nov 15, 2023
- 9 min read
Updated: Dec 14, 2024
This week for one of my classes we needed to ask AI a question and fact-check its answers. It was important to pick a topic we were interested in, and to have a decent amount of knowledge on the subject. I obviously chose to go down the UFO rabbithole, because what else do I know this much about?
(Besides maybe making cupcakes and cookies….)
Though, as UFOs are a topic I already have a pretty comprehensive timeline of events on, as well as the ones I consider the most important - I thought it would make an excellent topic for this assignment.
So I asked the question : What are the top 50 UFO events?
I think it is important to note that there were multiple incidents on the AI-generated list that I do not consider to be of any kind of relevance - however, there were also a couple that I had not previously done too much research on that ended up being really interesting. If I had the opportunity to do this again, I would include a caveat to my question to include known military and government programs associated with UFOs as well - as the correlation between the two is what I am really interested in.
With each event, AI gave me only the year it occurred - and I think that just as important as the year is the actual date of the incident, and a short summary of what it involves. So after I fact-checked the year of each incident that AI generated, I also included a brief summary of what happened. (Of which, I thought it would be fun to build off of the Wikipedia page of each event as that was our other focus for this week. Interestingly some did not have an article - for those I found another source to include.)
Some of the incidents I chose to not include in the blog post were indeed legitimately well-documented cases of UFOs, UAPs, and abductions and disappearances, (such as the 1561 Battle of Nuremberg, the Frederick Valentich Disappearance, and the Mexican Air Force UFOs,) - but as they did not involve the United States or any of its people, I decided to exclude them from my final list since there is such a multitude of our own sightings and experiences.
After filtering through all of my research, I also find it very interesting to note that I asked for 50, and was given a total of 24 events that were either completely obvious hoaxes or repeat events ; and only just over half of the events were useful - but several of those were from outside the United States, which is also un-useful to my particular research, (but the really interesting ones I decided to include as their own subcategory.)
Also interesting is the fact that there were no events listed past 2014, which at this point is almost a decade ago. I know that AI can not tell you the most recent news - however, that it does not know anything for almost a decade is quite confounding. Some of the events the AI listed with completely incorrect dates, and the outdated nature of generated texts are the best reasons to always do your own research, and not rely on AI to generate content.
After all was said and done - I think the collaborative list built between AI and myself is quite intriguing to check out. I added links to each event in case you are curious to learn more about it for yourself! Do I trust AI - not hardly - but I do see its useful nature in beginning the process of researching new topics ; as long as you then go and continue your research further.
….and if you’re curious about the in’s and out’s of this conversation, and all of the changes and corrections I had to make, the Google Doc is linked here!
…as always guys,
keep your eyes to the skies.
Ever searching for the truth.
~ The Top 19 - an AI Collaboration ~
Battle of Los Angeles February 24-25, 1942 : A notable incident that occurred during World War II, in which there was a reported encounter with unidentified flying objects (UFOs) over Los Angeles, California. This event took place shortly after the United States entered World War II, and ended in a literal Air battle by the US Air Force over Los Angeles.
Roswell UFO Incident - July 7th, 1947 : The Roswell incident remains a subject of debate and intrigue, and it has had a lasting impact on popular culture and the UFO community. While the official explanation is that the incident involved a weather balloon, proponents of extraterrestrial visitation continue to maintain that the truth about Roswell remains hidden.
Mantell UFO Incident - January 7, 1948 : In this incident, Kentucky National Air Guard Thomas F. Mantell died after crashing his P-51 Mustang fighter plane near Franklin Kentucky in pursuit of a UFO. It is said that he climbed to an elevation too high, and blacked out from lack of oxygen as he chased the UFO.
McMinnville UFO Photographs - May 11, 1950 : Part of the Condon Committee investigations, these photographs were taken when Paul and Evelyn Trent saw a UFO over their farm outside of Sheridan, Oregon. These photos were later shared in newpapers nationwide, as well as LIFE magazine.
Mariana UFO Incident - August 5, 1950 : This incident was investigated by Project Grudge, Project Blue Book, The Robertson Panel, The Condon Report, and The Colorado Project. It still remains inconclusive today in the US National Archives, and each of these investigations came out with different results.
Lubbock Lights - August 25, 1951 : This series of sightings started at the end of August, and continued through the end of September. Each of the series was seen by professors and students of Texas Tech. The first sighting, by three professors, included 20-30 lights flying overhead - the next, seen by the same three professors were 12-15 lights the size of dinner plates, slightly smaller than the moon at the horizon - and the most interesting caught on 35-mm Kodak film by a freshman attending the college. This incident was investigated as part of Project Blue Book.
Washington, D.C., UFO Incident - July 19-20 & 26-27, 1952 : Often referred to as the Washington DC Merry Go Round, in this event multiple UFOs were tracked on radar and observed by both military personnel and civilians over Washington, D.C., leading to widespread public and media attention.
Betty and Barney Hill Abduction - September 19-20, 1961 : The Hill abduction was one of the very first publicized abduction events, in which their detailed accounts under hypnosis generated significant interest.
Nellis Air Force Base UFO - April 18, 1962 : For a total of 32 minutes a UFO was tracked by NORAD as it crossed from Oneida, New York - to eventually explode in the sky above Mesquite Range, Nevada. The craft landed at one point for a total of 42 minutes, wherein all power was lost from a nearby power station, and was not regained until it took back off to continue its flight. This was witnessed by thousands of people across a total of ten states, and was investigated by Project Blue Book.
Socorro UFO Landing - April 24, 1964 : Often referred to as the Lonnie Zamore incident, this is one of the events investigated by Project Blue Book to be concluded as “unknown.”
Kecksburg UFO Incident - December 9, 1965 : On this night, people in a total of six states, including Canada, witnessed a bright fireball streaking across the sky - and making what appeared to be a “controlled crash landing” in Kecksburg Pennsylvania. This event has come to be known as the East Coast Roswell and shows immense growth and development in the ways the government handles these types of incidents in the two decades since the Roswell event.
Northern Tier UFO Sightings - October 27 - November 18, 1975 : Another Nuclear Missile Launch Site and Bomber Base sightings wherein over two weeks time several events occured in Montana, Michigan, and Maine - including over Air Force bases housing nuclear warheads.
Hudson Valley UFO Sightings - 1983-1989 : Wave of sightings in the Hudson River Valley area of New York through the entire decade of the 80s. Investigated by J. Allen Hynek, and witnessed by over 5,000 people - this can be viewed similar to the Belgium Wave, however American Governement and Military did not handle it in the same way of transparency.
Phoenix Lights - March 13, 1997 : This refers to a series of widely reported sightings of UFOs by thousands of people, all of whom describe the lights as a formation of stationary and moving lights in the shape of a black triangle. It is interesting to note that the formation of said lights is very similar, (if not the same,) as some of the reportings over the last couple of years. find photos
Illinois UFO Sighting - January 4-5, 2000 : A massive and slient UFO was seen over Southern Illinois in which a black, triagle-shaped craft was witnessed by people in several towns, including police officers across four separate districts.
Nimitz UFO Incident - November 14, 2004 : The U.S. Navy reported encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) off the coast of California. This event was later confirmed by military personnel. The USS Nimitz incident is sometimes referred to as the "Tic-Tac" UFO encounter due to the description of the objects’ appearance. The objects were reported to be white, oblong, and exhibiting anomalous flight behavior.
O'Hare International Airport UFO - November 7, 2006 : This UFO was spotted by several airport employees and patrons, and was never investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration as it was not seen on radar. The reports range in the craft being between 6 and 24 feet, and hovering for around five minutes. The object then shot off at high speed straight up into the sky, cutting a perfect circle hole out of the heavy cloud coverage.
Stephenville Lights - January 8, 2008 : What MUFON called one of the larger UFO sightings in the United States in their 77-page report on the event - the Stephenville Lights were witnessed by dozens of people, including a pilot and a police officer - who all said they said a massive object floating over the town for about five minutes before streaking away. The incident gained national attention, and there were claims that F-16 fighter jets were scrambled in response.
Chilean Navy UFO - November 11th, 2014 : This 9 minute video released to the public shows a UAP that was encountered by a Navy Captain and technician who were on a routine daytime patrol mission, flying north along the Chilean coast. In this case it was not a flying craft (UFO,) it was two very large and overlapping orbs of light (UAP) that was captured on film.
OUTSIDE OF THE US :
Westall UFO Encounter - April 6, 1966 : This UFO sighting in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia happened around at around 11am at Westall High School, now Westall Secondary College. In this sighting several students and a teacher saw a grey, (or silvery-green,) saucer-shaped flying craft that flew over the school, and into the forest behind. About 20 minutes later the object reappeared and flew off to the north-west, with some people saying that it was being pursued by five other craft.
Falcon Lake Incident - May 20, 1967 : Part of the Condon Committee Investigations, this event happened at Whiteshell Provincial Park in the Canadian Province of Manitoba, and is called Canada’s best-documented UFO case by CBC News and the world’s most documented UFO sighting by Atlas Obscura.
Tehran UFO Incident - September 19, 1976 : Radar and visual sighting of UFO over the Capital City of Tehran, Iraq, wherein two Imperial Air-Force F-4 Phantom II jet interceptors lost all control of instrumentation and communication as approaching this object.
Rendlesham Forest Incident - December 26-28, 1980 : Sometimes referred to as Britian’s Roswell, this incident included multiple U.S. Air Force personnel stationed at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk, England - including deputy base commander Lieutenant Colonel Charles I. Halt - who reported witnessing mysterious lights and a structured craft in Rendlesham Forest. This is one of the most well-documented sightings involving military personnel.
Belgium UFO Wave - November 29, 1989 - April 1990 : Over a span of several months there were widely reported sightings of large, triangular-shaped UFOs flying all across Belgium. These were witnessed by numerous people and were extensively investigated by the Belgian authorities.
Ariel School Encounter - September 16 1994 : Sixty-two pupils between the ages of 6-12 all saw one or more UFOs coming down from the sky while at recess in Ruwa, Zimbabwe. Some of these children claimed telepathic communication and a message about protecting the environment.
All information found between these Books, Articles, Videos, Documents, and Websites (and Wikis linked above) :
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