An AI photograph appearing to show a newly-wed couple posing in front of a polling centre in Bengal's Howrah district during Phase 1 of the state Assembly Election 2026 has been shared as real on social media.
BOOM found that the picture was generated using Google AI.
The Claim
The photo was posted by X handle @Voiceofhindus.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
What We Found: Photo Was Generated Using AI
1. Visual Discrepancies In The Photo: We first noticed that the image shows a banner of the Election Commission of India with the mention of “Phase 1.” Behind the woman, the name of a centre, “Howrah Government High School,” appears to be written in Bengali.
However, the text below the school’s name looks distorted and unreadable, a common trait seen in artificially generated images.
Further, Howrah is not in the list of constituencies going to polls in Phase 1 in West Bengal. According to the schedule released by the Election Commission of India, constituencies in Howrah district are set to vote in Phase 2, scheduled for April 29, 2026.
2. Photo Made With Google AI: For further confirmation, we tested the picture using SynthID. The detector confirmed with “High Confidence” that the image is manipulated using AI. The result also added that the image is either entirely, or part of it was made using Google AI.
We also analysed the image using other AI detection tools such as Hive Moderation and TruthScan, both of which confirmed the presence of AI-generated elements in the photograph.
