The fake videos that have gained widespread attention on the internet, two prominent Bollywood stars from India are seen criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urging viewers to support the opposition Congress party in the current national election, according to Reuters.
Both Bollywood celebrities, Aamir Khan in one 30-second film and Ranveer Singh in another 41-second one, allegedly criticize Prime Minister Modi for not fulfilling campaign promises and neglecting important economic matters in his two terms in office.
The slogan "Vote for Justice, Vote for Congress" and the Congress election emblem are displayed after both AI-generated videos.
Since last week, the two videos have received over 500,000 views on social media, according to a Reuters analysis.
Their widespread distribution highlights the possible impact the content produced by artificial intelligence (AI) might have on the massive Indian election that got underway on Friday and will go until June. Elections in other countries, including as the United States, Pakistan, and Indonesia, are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-generated fakes, or deepfakes.
Door-to-door campaigning and public gatherings have long been the mainstays of Indian politics; nevertheless, the widespread use of Facebook and WhatsApp as tools for campaigning began in 2019. AI is being used for the first time in this year's general election, where Modi is predicted to win an uncommon third term.
On April 17, Sujata Paul, a Congress spokesperson, shared actor Singh's video with her 16,000 followers on X. By Saturday afternoon, her post had gotten 438,000 views, 2,900 reshares, and 8,700 likes.
When Paul posted the video, she believed the person looked like Singh and "it has creativity for sure," so even though she knew X had labelled it as "manipulated media," she did not want to remove it, she informed Reuters over the phone.
On Sunday, the post was removed from X, shortly after Reuters had contacted the head of Congress's social media unit for comment, to which they had not replied.
According to both actors, the videos are fake. According to Facebook, X, and at least eight fact-checking websites, the content has been edited or distorted; this has also been verified by the Reuters digital verification unit.
Reuters was unable to identify the creators of the videos. A representative for both actors said that Khan was "alarmed" by the widely shared "fake" film and that Singh's team was investigating the situation. On Friday, Singh posted on X, "Beware of deepfakes, friends".
Response requests were not answered by Modi's office or the Bharatiya Janata Party's IT head.
Police investigation:
With almost 900 million people in India having access to the Internet, a study by the Indian Institute of Management Business School and research group Esya Centre revealed that the typical Indian spends more than three hours a day on social media. The country has nearly one billion voters.
14 of the videos were still playable on X on Saturday, even though some of them had been removed from social media. Two videos that Reuters reported to Facebook had been deleted but one was still visible.
Facebook claimed in a statement that it has "removed the videos" due to the way they violated its policies. X did not reply to questions from Reuters.
The videos led to a police investigation, and on April 17, Khan filed a complaint in Mumbai against unidentified people for allegedly impersonating and misleading to produce the fake video.
The request for comments from Mumbai police was not answered; nonetheless, two unnamed officials handling Khan's case claimed to have written Facebook and X to seek the removal of the video, and both companies had replied that the request had been fulfilled.
The police claimed to have been up until 2 in the morning on Friday, updating websites to see if Khan's uploaded videos had been taken down. When asked how the case was going, one of them replied, "Such technical investigations take time."
AI video of dead father:
Politicians are utilizing AI in different ways throughout this year's election.
According to a spokesman for Congress leader Vijay Vasanth in southern India, his team used artificial intelligence (AI) to construct a two-minute audio-video clip that was posted on social media platforms. The video depicts Vasanthakumar, his father, a well-known but deceased politician, asking for votes on his behalf.
"Even though my body left you all, my soul is still around," the late politician is heard saying.
Samata, an AI-generated anchor dressed in a traditional saree and speaking in a way close to ordinary news networks, criticises the governing party in West Bengal state in videos posted on YouTube by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM).
The anchor claims in one clip that the party doesn't care about the environment because so many water bodies have disappeared as a result of illegal construction.
A representative for the ruling party rejected the allegation by stating that the state administration had taken steps to prevent any building of such kind. Comment inquiries received no response from the CPM.
Anchor Samata states in the 12,000-view video that "these are questions that we the citizens of this city need to ponder over."
