An AI-generated image of Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Prime Minister Narendra Modi donning the Bharatiya Janata Party's scarves is being shared on social media with false claims of Dhoni joining the BJP.
BOOM analysed the viral image, and found evidence of it being created through artificial intelligence. Furthermore, we found no credible news report to back the claim that Dhoni is joining the BJP.
The viral photo features both Dhoni and Modi wearing saffron scarves with white lotuses, resembling BJP's symbol, and standing in front of a saffron banner with 'Bharatiya Janata Party' written over it.
An user on Facebook shared the photo with a caption that stated, "MS Dhoni joins BJP."
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Fact Check
BOOM ran keyword searches about Dhoni joining the BJP, but was unable to find any credible reports supporting this claim. Moreover, we did not find any news articles reporting any public meeting between Dhoni and Modi.
We ran the viral image through a reverse image search, and found no credible news report carrying it.
A closer inspection of the viral photo revealed some irregularities, such as an unusual half a lotus symbol on PM Modi's sleeves, along with different sizes and patterns of lotus on the saffron scarves.
Taking cue from this, we tested the image on AI image detection tools like Hive Moderation and AIOrNOt. Both the tools confirmed that the image has been generated using artificial intelligence.
The results obtained can be seen below.