Gen-AI Image Showing Dhoni Giving Kohli Player of Series Award Viral as Real

We spotted a small, almost-invisible Gemini AI logo, which revealed that the image was generated by AI.

Fact-Check: This image contains Gemini AI's logo and is not real.

(Source: The Quint) 

A viral photo claiming to show former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni handing the ‘Player of the Series’ trophy to Virat Kohli after India’s One Day International series win against South Africa on 6 December in Visakhapatnam, is being shared on social media.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false as we spotted Gemini AI's logo in the bottom right corner of the photo. Additionally, the original ceremony did not feature Dhoni.

What we found: At first, we ran a Google reverse image search on the image and were led to a report by NDTV India from 7 December.

• It featured a similar image of Kohli receiving his award, but being felicitated by someone other than Dhoni, as claimed.

• The person handing the award to Kohli was Aman Dalal, Business Head at IDFC First Bank, which sponsored the India–South Africa ODI series.

Here is the difference between the two visuals. 

(Source: ALtered by The Quint) 

• Additionally, Team WebQoof spotted the Gemini AI logo in the bottom right corner of the image, prompting that it was created using artificial intelligence.

Here is the close-up of the Gemini AI logo in the image. 

(Source: ALtered by The Quint) 

Other news reports by Jansatta and News18 also featured Kohli's image receiving the award. The reports noted that Kohli had achieved another milestone by winning the 'Player of the Series' title for the twelfth time.

Conclusion: An AI-generated image is being shared to falsely claim that Dhoni awarded Kohli with the 'Player of the Series' title when India won the ODIs against South Africa.

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