A video going viral on social media shows Google CEO Sundar Pichai promoting an investment opportunity with a platform called Google Invest.
BOOM found that this video is a deepfake; an analysis of this video by the MCA's Deepfake Analysis Unit revealed that the video has been manipulated using artificial intelligence - with a voice clone of Pichai added to the video, along with a lip-sync algorithm being used to add false lip synchronisation to the synthetic audio.
In the viral video, Pichai can be heard saying, "Google Invest is not just a platform, it is your personal key to financial independence and stability. With our revolutionary technology, you can easily grow your savings from the comfort of your home. Be part of the new wave of success available only to Indian citizens. Just think, with an investment of just INR 20,000 you can earn a steady income of INR 180,000 per month.. Let Google invest be your trusted partner in the world of finance."
The video can be viewed on Facebook here, and an archive can be viewed here.
Fact Check
BOOM did a few keyword searches with relevant keywords like "Sundar Pichai Google Invest". We were unable to find any reports on Pichai giving such investment advice, nor were we able to find the existence of a platform named "Google Invest".
We then performed a reverse image search of keyframes from the viral video, which led us to a video uploaded on YouTube by the channel YouTube Originals, titled, "Sundar Pichai Commencement Speech | Dear Class Of 2020." The video contained a speech by Pichai which resembles the frames seen in the viral video.
We compared a keyframe from the viral video with the YouTube Originals video, and found them to be an exact match in terms of Pichai's clothing and the background.
In the YouTube video, Pichai can be heard talking about his life, but does not mention a word about "Google Invest" or promote any type of investment.
The Misinformation Combat Alliance's Deepfake Analysis Unit (DAU), of which BOOM is a part of, analysed the viral video using various deepfake detection tools, and found it to be altered using artificial intelligence.
Loccus.ai's voice detection tool revealed to the DAU that the audio being used was made using AI, while Hive AI's detection tool pointed to the strong possibility of the video being altered using AI as well.
DAU also had the video analysed by their detection partner TrueMedia, which also confirmed the strong possibility of AI manipulation. "Their tool gave a 100 percent confidence score to the subcategory of “AI-generated audio detection”, 92 percent confidence score to “audio forensics”, and the two separate confidence scores for “audio analysis” stood at 99 percent and 85 percent - all indicating the presence of synthetic audio," DAU reported.
An analysis of the audio using ElevenLab's speech classifier also revealed to DAU with 98% probability that the audio was created using their AI voice cloning tool. Furthermore, ElevenLabs confirmed to DAU that they have identified the user who created the voice clone as a bad actor, who has been blocked from their system.
DAU also consulted with experts and researchers who further confirmed that the viral video has been manipulated, highlighting the use of lip-sync algorithm, along with voice cloning.
DAU's full report on the video can be viewed here.
