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.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
A slideshow of four photos, purportedly showing archaeologists next to a giant sword. Users claim that the sword belongs to Kumbhakarna, younger brother of Ravana from the Hindu epic, Ramayana.
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
Fact
Newschecker noticed that the faces of the people next to the sword were not clear and that the four photos had an extra glossy texture, all signs pointing towards AI-generated imagery. We also ran a keyword search for “Kumbhakarna sword”, which did not throw up any credible reports about such a discovery.
Newschecker ran each of the four photos past TrueMedia, an AI content-detection tool, which noted “substantial evidence of manipulation” in three of the images.
Although detecting “substantial evidence of generative AI” in the fourth image, TrueMedia labelled it “Uncertain: Could Be Authentic or Manipulated” because it contained too many faces, which was outside its focus. The results can be seen here, here, here and here.
“The proportions of the sword compared to the person suggest that it would be an impossibly large weapon, which is physically unrealistic. Such objects are common in digitally manipulated images or artworks meant for fantasy or entertainment purposes….Additionally, the sword’s condition and placement in the ground appear too cleanly staged. These factors strongly indicate digital manipulation or generation.,” according to the tool’s reports on the four images. The Illuminarty detection tool, too, stated that there were high probabilities of the images being AI-generated.
Also Read: Viral Video Claiming To Show Liam Payne Falling To His Death Is Old & Unrelated
Result: Altered Media
Sources
TrueMedia tool
Illuminarty 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.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
