A deepfake video of Google and Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai urging Indians to invest in a fake platform called 'Google Invest' is viral on social media.
BOOM found that visuals of the video were taken from an old video of Pichai speaking on climate change, and overlaid with AI-generated voice clones.
In the 2:26-minute-long viral video, the Google CEO can be heard speaking about a platform named 'Google Invest' that promises people a return of Rs 1 lakh 90 thousand in the first month on a single investment of Rs 21,000 only. Pichai can be heard saying, "In collaboration with the government of India we have set a minimum deposit of 21 thousand rupees so everyone can try it out and see how easy and effective it is to increase their savings."
Moreover, as the video starts, news anchor Palki Sharma Upadhyay can also be seen sitting behind a desk with the FirstPost logo, which has "INVEST 21,000 RUPEES RECEIVE 190,000 RUPEES IN THE FIRST MONTH" written on it.
A Facebook page shared the video with the caption, "For Indian citizens only. Seats for registration are limited!"
Click here to see video and here for the archive.
Fact Check
BOOM ran a related keyword search but we did not find any reports published by FirstPost or other credible news sources about 'Google Invest', or about Pichai promoting any other investment platform.
We then ran a reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral video which led us to a post on Sundar Pichai's verified Instagram handle where his appearance, outfit and the background matches that of the viral video.
Uploaded on October 24, 2021, Pichai can be heard speaking about the importance of solving the problem of climate change immediately.
Pichai's entire speech is available on the official Google blog with the headline, "Climate change is humanity’s next big moonshot." Click here to see.
Through another keyword search we found the video of Pichai's full speech about climate change uploaded on a YouTube channel. Click here to see.
A comparison of the screengrabs from the viral video and the videos uploaded on YouTube and Pichai's Instagram account can be seen below.
We noticed several inconsistencies in the entire video like Pichai's unusual chin movements while he talks, and Palki Sharma prounouncing 'Sundar' in two different ways. Taking a cue, we ran the segments of Palki Sharma and Sundar Pichai separately on Hive Moderation AI-generated content detection tool.
In both the cases, the results showed 99% probability of the audio track being generated using artificial intelligence. The results can be seen below.
Our partners at Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) also analysed the viral video. They tested the audio on Hiya's AI voice detection tool which too showed 99 percent probability that the audio track in the video was generated or modified using A.I.
DAU also reached out to experts at ContrailsAI whose audio and video detection tools indicated high confidence that AI voice clones of Pichai and Upadhyay have been used to manipulate the video. They found clear signs of lip-sync tools usage to synchronise the audio with lip movements in the video frames.
Furthermore, they also reached out to their partners at RIT's DeFake Project who traced Upadhyay's segment to a FirstPost video report published on January 15, 2025., and found that there was no mention of any investment scheme in the entire video report. Apart from audio manipulations, Saniat Sohrawardi from RIT's DeFake Project highlighted to DAU various visual manipulation evidences in the video like 'toading' i.e., the protrusion of the bottom part of the face or Adam's apple beyond the usual extent.
Sohrawardi also pointed out to DAU the blurring between the right-side of Pichai’s chin and the area below that, along the neck. He said that this occurs as the algorithm tries to recreate the background beyond the face; as that portion falls within the area that was cropped for manipulation during lip-sync generation.
BOOM has previously debunked false claims of Google CEO Sundar Pichai promoting fake investment platforms like 'Google Invest.' Click here and here to see. Similar fake claims have also been made using deepfakes of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy and others.
