A video of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is being circulated on social media platforms with a claim that it shows her recently promoting an investment platform.
Is the video real?: No, the video has been manipulated using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The original clip dates back to September, when Sitharaman was speaking at an event to mark the 80th anniversary of the Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants' Assocation in Madurai.
What led us to the truth?: We noticed that the viral video carried a watermark of a media outlet named 'Polimer News'.
Next, we conducted a keyword search on YouTube and found the full-version available on the media outlet's official channel.
The video was shared on 19 September and was titled, "Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Speech | Nirmala Sitharaman | Speech."
Sitharaman was speaking at the 80th anniversary of the Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants' Association.
We did not find any mention of the Finance Minister promoting an investment platform.
What did AI detection tool show?: On passing the viral video through an detection tool called 'DeepFake-O-Meter', we found that four of its detectors conclusively showed that the video had "AI-Generated Likelihood".
PIB's fact-checking wing clarifies: The fact-checking wing of the Press Information Bureau (PIB), on its official X handle, said that the video was "digitally altered".
The post shared on 27 October mentioned, "The Finance Minister or the Government of India has NOT launched or endorsed any such scheme!."
Conclusion: Evidently, the video of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is AI-manipulated.
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