A long video of television anchor and journalist Rajat Sharma has gone viral, where he can be heard talking about the United States of America's (USA) monopoly over big technology firms such as Google and Facebook.
What does he say?: In the clip, Sharma, allegedly the host of a show named 'Taza Report,' noted that India had finally taken a bold step toward digital independence with the launch of Comet, its search engine designed to rival global giants like Google and Facebook.
Sharma stressed how American firms stored and had access to the data of several Indians, as the country has the world's largest internet user base.
It suggested that Comet allegedly kept user data within India, offering services in 23 local languages, and uses artificial intelligence to make the internet more accessible and affordable, especially for rural users.
Sharma also highlighted that Comet’s rapid global expansion across 32 countries challenged the US firms.
Is the claim true?: No, the claim is false as parts of the audio in the clip featuring Sharma have been digitally manipulated.
We did not find any reports about a newly launched Indian search engine named Comet.
Perplexity AI, an American software company, launched Comet, its AI-powered search engine in July.
What we found: At first, we ran a relevant keyword search to find if such a development had taken place in the country however, we did not find any official press releases or announcements to support the same.
However, the keyword search led us to the same video on YouTube by a channel named Taza Report. It should be noted that in the viral video, Sharma can be heard hosting a show named 'Taza Report.'
Upon going through its description, we found out sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated in the viral video.
About Sharma: He is the chairman and editor-in-chief of news channel India TV where Sharma hosts 'Aaj ki Baat' and 'Aap ki Aadalat.'
We did not find any credible sources linking him to 'Taza Report.'
We, then, reached out to the Deepfake Analysis Unit (DAU) for their inputs. The unit only analysed the audio in the clip and found that parts of it were generated using AI.
DAU took the help of AI-detection tools such as Hive AI and ElevenLabs speech classifier to find the results.
They broke down the video into three separate tracks and found that parts of the audio in the claim were AI-generated.
Additionally, Team WebQoof noted that the lip movement did not match with the words being said in the video.
Some context: On 9 July, Perplexity AI, an American privately held software company, launched 'Comet,' its first AI-powered web browser.
Notably, Reuters reported that the company, led by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Co-Founder Aravind Srinivas, who is of Indian origin, made a $34.5 billion all-cash bid to acquire Google Chrome, a move far exceeding its own valuation and reflecting the startup’s bold ambitions.
Conclusion: A digitally manipulated video has gone viral to falsely claim that a show hosted by Sharma reported that India was launching its own search-engine named Comet.
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