Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Claim
Former PM Manmohan Singh endorses online investment scheme.
Fact
Newschecker noticed that the lip movements of Singh seemed unnatural, indicating that it may have been digitally altered.
We ran a reverse image search of keyframes, which led us to this Youtube video, uploaded by the Indian National Congress on September 1, 2019, headlined, “All-round mismanagement by govt led to slowdown’: Former PM Manmohan Singh”.
“Former PM Manmohan Singh said the state of India’s economy is ‘deeply worrying’. He said, ‘The state of the economy today is deeply worrying. The last quarter’s GDP growth rate of 5% signals that we are in the midst of a prolonged slowdown. India has the potential to grow at a much faster rate but all-round mismanagement by the Modi government has resulted in this slow down,’ read the description of the video. At no point in the video did Singh mention any investment opportunity, proving that the viral video is altered.
Newschecker ran the video past an AI content-detection tool, TrueMedia, which found “substantial evidence of manipulation”, while also pointing towards AI-generated audio. “The transcript reads like a scripted sales pitch or scam rather than a genuine spoken conversation. The language is overly polished and persuasive, with numerous promises of financial gain and urgency tactics typical of scams. The mention of a well-known figure, Manmohan Singh, in this context is likely an attempt to lend credibility to the message, which is a common tactic in fraudulent schemes. The structure and content of the transcript are consistent with a scripted piece designed to manipulate the audience,” read the tool’s report on the video.
Newschecker then ran the audio past ElevenLabs, a voice AI research and deployment company, which said it was “very likely (98% probability)” that the voice was generated with ElevenLabs.
We also ran the audio past Resemble AI’s Deepfake Detector, which stated that the voice was “Fake”, further confirming that the viral video was a deepfake.
Result: Altered Media
Source
Youtube video, INC, September 1, 2019
TrueMedia AI detection tool
Resemble AI’s Deepfake Detector
ElevenLabs AI voice detection tool
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
