AI-Manipulated Clip Shared to Falsely Claim It Shows CNS Tripathi Blaming Govt

The video was altered using AI to falsely claim that CNS Tripathi blamed the government for the Navy's losses.

A video of India's Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi speaking at an event is being shared on social media.

What does he say?: The clip shows the CNS purportedly making a statement about the Navy's role during Operation Sindoor, saying, "We wanted the government to let us fight, but they did not give us permission. This is why the Indian Navy had to suffer loses."

What is the claim?: The video is being shared to claim that CNS Tripathi "blames the Modi Government for not giving them permission to inflict any damage due to political reasons."

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

Is it true?: No, the clip has been altered using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make the false claim.

How do we know?: We noticed news organisation The Print's logo on the top-left corner of the video, so we looked for the longer version of CNS Tripathi's speech on their YouTube channel.

• He acknowledged the people present, informing them about the Navy's newest warships and frigates being commissioned.

• The CNS then spoke about the newly commissioned frontline stealth frigates INS Himgiri and INS Udaygiri, which borrow their names older naval vessels.

• At the 04:12-minute mark, he made the same statement heard the viral clip, where he said,

"Sir, a few days ago you told the Indian Navy on the deck of [INS] Vikrant that Operation Sindoor hasn't ended yet. If needed the next time, the Navy might get the chance to 'open' the next operation.Today, I want to say that modern and state-of-the-art platforms like Udaygiri and Himgiri make us able to deliver a better opening knockout punch to our opponent."

CNS Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi

• Nowhere in the video does he talk about the Navy not getting the government's permission to fight.

• We found the same statement in a Times of India report, which mentioned that CNS Tripathi was speaking in Vishakhapatnam, where INS Udaygiri and Himgiri were commissioned by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on 26 August.

Is it AI?: Since there was a abrupt change in the voice and volume where the false statement was made in the clip, we ran that section through Hive Moderation's AI-generated content detection tool.

• It showed a 99.9 percent confidence that the clip carried AI-generated audio.

Conclusion: An AI-manipulated clip is being shared to claim that India's Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi blamed the government for the Navy's alleged losses during Operation Sindoor.

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