No Netflix deal
Fraser-Pryce the target of fake AI promotion
Published:Tuesday | September 30, 2025 | 12:12 AMKaren Madden/Gleaner Writer
JAMAICAN SPRINTING icon Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who recently announced her retirement from global competitions, is among international celebrities included in fake online artificial intelligence (AI)-generated posts about lucrative Netflix deals.
The 38-year-old, who won a silver medal with Jamaica’s sprint relay team at the recent World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, announced that the championship marked the final time she would compete at a global event.
The posts, which have been widely circulated locally and overseas, claimed Fraser-Pryce had inked a US$13.5-million deal for a seven-episode tribute series with the streaming company.
Netflix is one of the world’s leading entertainment services with a reported “over 300 million paid subscribers in over 190 countries seeing TV series, films and games across a wide variety of genres and languages”.
The fake posts, which have been picked up by reputable outlets, claim that the series “would not be a typical sports documentary but rather, a tribute to her career”.
The story has since been debunked by fact-checking sites as misinformation.
The creators of the fake information seemingly target celebrities, with similar posts claiming American basketballer Ja Morant had also inked a US$13.5-million Netflix deal, which would chronicle his journey with the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA.
American broadcaster Stephen Colbert was also targeted, with a Netflix deal announced shortly after his late-night talk show with network giant CBS was cancelled. The same was true for social media site X owner and businessman Elon Musk, with the fake news site claiming he had signed a deal to fund youth innovation.
All these reports were subsequently debunked as fake news.
Several Jamaican athletes, including Fraser-Pryce, have been included in the 2024 Netflix docudrama Sprint, which aired for two seasons.