A doctored video of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das, where they are promoting an investment platform has surfaced.
The video with old visuals of Sitharaman and Das interacting with the media, has been overlaid with their AI-generated voice clones.
It appears to show Sitharaman telling people that they can make millions from a one-time investment of Rs 21000. In the later part, Das appears to be claiming that the platform is legal and has been verified by the government.
Click here to see one viral Facebook post.
Fact Check: Videos from separate media interactions
Nirmala Sitharaman's video from September, 2024
We ran a related keyword search using Nirmala Sitharaman and News 18 as she can be seen holding a News 18 mic. We then found her interview by CNN-News18 uploaded on September 16, 2024.
Shaktikanta Das' video from October, 2024
We broke the video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search on a few of the frames of Shaktikanta Das. This led us to an article published by The Hindu on October 9, 2024 which featured the image from the same video.
The caption read, "RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das addresses a press conference at RBI headquarters, in Mumbai on Wednesday (October 9, 2024)." See here.
We then found the same video from RBI's Post Monetary Policy Press Conference held by Das on October 9, 2024. The interaction was streamed live on RBI's official YouTube channel.
RBI issues a clarification
Furthermore, in a clarification dated November 19, 2024, the RBI cautioned people on 'deepfake videos of top management circulated over social media giving financial advice.'
AI Generated Voice Clones
The video was tested on TrueMedia.org, an AI content detector tool and the results confirmed that there is substantial evidence of manipulation by AI. The audio was also tested on AI voice detection tool— Hiya which also confirmed that the audio has been generated using artificial intelligence.
BOOM had earlier fact-checked similar AI-voice clones of Sudha Murthy, author and Rajya Sabha MP, where she can be seen promoting investment platforms urging people to deposit Rs 21000 and then earn millions. See here and here.