An AI-generated selfie featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi with world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, is being shared on social media as a real photo taken at the 2026 BRICS Summit.
BOOM found a watermark in the photograph indicating it was generated using OpenAI's tools.
The BRICS summit is an annual event that brings delegations from member countries. This year, the summit was hosted at Bharat Mandapam, Delhi, on September 12 and 13.
The Claim:
The viral image was posted by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Shazia Ilmi praising PM Modi’s leadership, while criticising opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi. Ilmi later deleted her post.
Archive available here.
What We Found:
1) Former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in 2024
BOOM found that the image featured former Iranian President Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash due to poor weather near the Azerbaijan border on May 20, 2024 and therefore would not be present at the BRICS summit in 2026.
2) OpenAI watermark detected
We then ran the image through OpenAI's Verify tool, which found embedded markers that confirmed that the photo was generated using OpenAI.