A video claiming to show Muhammad Yunus - chief adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh, announcing his resignation from the post is fake and has been doctored using an artificial intelligence (AI) voice clone.
In the viral video Yunus appears to be announcing his resignation and transferring his power over to Pinaki Bhattacharyya. He can also be heard dismissing Waker-uz-Zaman, the army chief of Bangladesh. In the video, the voice clone of Yunus can be heard saying, "I, Muhammed Yunus, the chief advisor of Bangladesh hereby announce my resignation. I have just resigned from the interim government. I also handover my power to Pinaki Bhattacharya and dismiss the army chief Wakar Uz Zaman."
The voice clone refers to Pinaki Bhattacharya, a critic of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government, who is residing in France and Wakar Uz Zaman, the current chief of Army Staff and a relative of the former Bangladesh Prime Minister.
The Nobel laureate took charge as chief adviser following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina led Awami League government on August 5, 2024 triggered by widespread protests demanding reforms in quota policies.
As the interim government of Bangladesh completed a month of its formation, the video of Yunus resigning has gone viral. A user on Facebook captioned the video in Bengali as, "Chief adviser is resigning...and listen carefully whom did he give power to."
The video was earlier debunked by BOOM Bangladesh.
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Fact Check: Video Overlaid with Audio Generated Using AI Voice Cloning
BOOM found the visuals has been taken from the speech Muhammad Yunus addressed to his countrymen on the occasion of the interim government of Bangladesh completing one month and has been overlaid with a fake audio generated using AI voice cloning.
We ran a reverse image search on one of the keyframes of viral video and came across a video that was streamed live on the YouTube channel of Bangladesh based Ekhon TV.
Streamed on September 11, 2024, the video contains similar visuals of Yunus giving a speech from behind his desk as observed in the viral video. In the live, Yunus can be heard addressing the citizens of Bangladesh in Bengali on the occasion of the interim government of Bangladesh completing one month since its formation.
Throughout the 33 minutes duration of his speech, the chief adviser can nowhere be heard announcing his resignation.
See here.
Furthermore, we noticed the lip movements of Muhammad Yunus were out of sync as he spoke in the viral video. BOOM tested the video using a deepfake detection tool built by TrueMedia.org.
The tool developed by the non-profit organisation gave the verdict that there is "substantial evidence of manipulation."
The results showed that the audio in the viral video was created using an AI audio generator or AI voice cloning.
