AI-Generated Video Falsely Shared as One of World’s 'Largest Ganesh Idol'

The video is an AI-generated one and doesn't show real visuals of any Lord Ganesh idol.

An AI-generated video is being widely shared with the false claim that it shows a real video of the world's largest idol of Lord Ganesh, located in Chennai.

(Source: Instagram/Altered by The Quint)

A video showing people preparing to build and making a massive idol of Lord Ganesh is being widely shared on social media amid Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations across the country.

The claim: The video is being shared to claim that it shows the world's largest idol of Lord Ganesh, which is in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

An archive of this post can be seen here.

(Source: FacebookScreenshot)

(Archived versions of more posts sharing this claim can be seen here, here, and here.)

Is it true?: No, the video was created using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and does not show real visuals of a Ganesh idol.

How do we know?: We noticed a watermark reading 'HooHooCreations80' on the video.

We found a watermark on the video.

(Source: Instagram/Altered by The Quint)

• When we looked this up, we came across and Instagram account and YouTube channel with the same name.

• On Instagram, the account had shared this video on 23 August with an 'AI label', to note that the video used AI-generated content.

It was tagged with an AI label.

(Source: Instagram/Screenshot)

The account regularly shares AI-generated videos to depict various unreal scenarios, with its bio mentioning that it specialises in "AI-driven creativity."

The account shares AI-generated content.

(Source: Instagram/Altered by The Quint)

Their YouTube channel's description also made several mentions of it sharing "AI-powered content."

It's description mentioned AI liberally.

(Source: YouTube/Screenshot)

• News organisation NDTV had previously published a report about this account while discussing its AI video series which reimagined popular foods and clothing.

AI detector: We ran a section of the video through Hive Moderation's AI-generated content detector, which showed a 99.9 percent certainty that the video was an AI-generated one.

Hive Moderation's tool showed high confidence in the video being AI generated.

(Source: Hive Moderation/Screenshot)

Conclusion: An AI-generated video is being shared to falsely claim that it shows the world's biggest Ganesh idol in Chennai.

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