The Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) analysed a video that shows Indian cricketer Hardik Pandya apparently promoting an online gambling app. After putting the video through A.I. detection tools, escalating it to our partners and experts, we were able to conclude that the video was a mosaic of animation, graphics, a cutout, and an A.I.-generated audio track.
The 20-second video in Hindi, embedded in a Facebook post, was sent to the DAU by a fact-checking partner for verification. A visual of Mr. Pandya, akin to a cutout, placed in the lower right corner of the video frame stands out against the backdrop, which keeps changing from an animation of a casino game to the interface of the supposed app indicating financial rewards.
The source of the male voice heard in the video is apparently the cutout of Pandya. Through awkward lip movements the voice introduces the cricketer in first person, and then breaks the news of the dubious app with a promise of ease of use and bonus payouts on trying the app.
Pandya seems to be the latest celebrity to have been falsely portrayed as an ambassador of a dodgy gaming app. The DAU has debunked several similar videos meant to scam. The packaging of this video is also like that of the cheapfake of veteran Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan debunked by the DAU.
The quality of the visual featuring Pandya is poor. His lip movements are not in sync with the words that can be heard in the corresponding audio track. The movement of his mouth seems unnatural, similar to the movement of a puppet’s mouth.
The shape of his lips and the appearance of his teeth keep changing at several points in the video. His teeth appear to be melting into his lips throughout the video. The voice sounds similar to his, however, it has a robotic tone to it and does not match his usual style of delivery.
A reverse image search using his close-ups from the video returned several results. It is difficult to say what was the exact source of Pandya’s visual given that it is a cutout without any additional details vis-a-vis the backdrop or his body language. The other cues are a microphone bearing the logo of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and his polo shirt with a logo of an IPL team he has represented.
To discern if A.I. had been used to manipulate the visual and audio elements in the video under review, we put it through A.I. detection tools.
Hive AI’s deepfake video detection tool did not detect any manipulation using A.I. in the visuals, however, their audio tool indicated tampering using A.I. throughout the duration of the audio track.
We also ran the video through our partner TrueMedia’s deepfake detector which suggested substantial evidence of manipulation in the video, overall.
In a further breakdown of the analysis, the tool gave a 100 percent confidence score to both subcategories of “A.I.-generated audio detection” and “audio analysis”, the latter indicating that the audio could have been produced using an A.I. audio generator. Both variables suggest a strong probability of the use of A.I. in the audio track.
The tool also gave a 99 percent confidence score to “face manipulation”, pointing to the probability that A.I. was used to fabricate the faces featured in this video, in this case it is Pandya’s face.
We wanted to get a further analysis on the audio track used in the video for which we reached out to ElevenLabs, a company specialising in voice A.I. research and deployment. They confirmed to the DAU that the audio is synthetic, implying that it was generated using A.I. They added that the user who broke their “terms of use” when generating the audio had been previously identified as a bad actor through their in-house automated moderation system. The user has been blocked from their platform.
We also sought an expert analysis from our partners at RIT’s DeFake project to make sense of the oddities that we noticed around Pandya’s face in the manipulated video. Saniat Sohrawardi from the project stated that the warping around the nose area of Pandya and the general stretching of his face makes it look like a puppeteering sort of deepfake.
Mr. Sohrawardi noted that the technique used for Pandya’s face seems similar to the one used by some earlier companies. He added that in this technique, the algorithm reanimates the whole face with the help of another face. The inconsistencies are mostly apparent around the nose and chin areas as the subject's face is stretched to match the structural details of the face of the source person acting out the movements.
On the basis of our findings and analysis from experts, we assessed that Pandya did not promote any online casino app, and that synthetic audio was used over his visual to fabricate a scam.
(Written by Debraj Sarkar, and edited by Pamposh Raina.)
Kindly Note: The manipulated audio/video files that we receive on our tipline are not embedded in our assessment reports because we do not intend to contribute to their virality.
You can read below the fact-checks related to this piece published by our partners:
Fact Check: कसीनो एप्लिकेशन का प्रमोशन कर रहे हार्दिक पांड्या का यह वीडियो डीपफेक है
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