Does This Video Show Gold-Stealing Birds in Bengaluru? No, It’s False!

An AI detection tool showed over 99 percent probability of the video being an AI-generated one.

A video which shows multiple birds sitting on a nest filled with gold chains is being circulated on social media platforms with a claim that it shows a recent incident from Karnataka's Bengaluru.

What did users say?: Those sharing the clip have uploaded it with a caption that said, "These birds stole more than a kilogram of gold from three jewellery shops to build their nest in Bengaluru High court road. As they could recover this gold only after the birds are hatched, these shop owners tightened security near this tree - this can happen, only in India!."

(More archives of similar such claims can be viewed here, here, and here.)

What are the facts?: The viral video of birds has been generated using the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and does not show real visuals.

What led us to the truth?: On performing a reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral clip, we found similar visuals published on an Instagram handle named 'surendra_garhwal__'.

• It was posted on 1 April.

• We noticed that the clip had an overly smooth texture, which is usually spotted in AI-generated visuals.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Surendra Garhwal (@surendra_garhwal__)

About the Instagram user: We checked the bio of the Instagram account and found that the user identified as a digital creator. The bio further carried text that said "Art & Ai | Enthusiast".

• On going through the account, we found that the user regularly uploads AI-generated clips. You can watch some of these clips here, here, and here.

• We have reached out to the user for his inputs and this report will be updated as and when a response is received.

What did the detection tool show?: Team WebQoof passed the Instagram video on an AI detection tool named 'Hive Moderation' to further verify its authenticity.

• The tool showed over 99 percent probability of the clip being an AI-generated one.

Conclusion: Evidently, the video has been generated using AI and does not show a real incident.

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