Fact Check: Viral Video Clip of Sundar Pichai Promoting Investment Platform is a Deepfake
The video of Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., which is going viral with the claim of promoting a fake and fictitious investment platform called Google Invest, is a deep fake. The original video is from 2020, in which Sundar Pichai shared his struggle experiences and learnings while encouraging the students graduating in the class of 2020. This deep fake video has been created by adding a synthetic AI audio clip of Sundar Pichai’s voice to this video clip.
- By Vishvas News
- Updated: September 5, 2024
New Delhi (Vishvas News): Many social media users are sharing a video featuring Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai, in which he can be seen promoting an investment platform, ‘Google Invest’. The video urges viewers to sign up quickly, claiming that sign-ups are limited.
Vishvas News investigation revealed that the video is a deepfake. The original footage, recorded in 2020, shows Sundar Pichai offering advice and sharing his experiences with graduating students, and not promoting any investment platform.
What is going viral?
A user sent this video to the Vishvas News tipline +91 9599299372, asking about its authenticity.
Many other users have also shared this video on different social media platforms with similar claims.
Investigation
Before beginning the investigation, we carefully viewed the video and found the visuals and audio were out of sync. Sundar Pichai’s lip movements and gestures did not match the words being spoken. In the news and keyword search, we found no information about any product named ‘Google Invest’. We also searched for other plausible matches, like “Google Investment”.
Similar deep fake videos of prominent Indian business figures like Mukesh Ambani, Anant Ambani and many others have gone viral in the past. We searched for the original version of the viral clip and found it on a Facebook page called “Thats My Child,” shared on June 10, 2020.
The video was recorded on May 22, 2020, at Sundar Pichai’s house. In this original video, Pichai addressed the class of 2020, encouraging them as they graduated. He spoke about the challenges faced by different generations, such as the 1920 pandemic, the Vietnam War in the 1970s, and the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, and he encouraged the Class of 2020 to overcome their own challenges.
Several other users have also shared the original video in a similar context, where Pichai can be heard talking about his professional struggles.
Our investigation so far revealed that the viral video clip is doctored. The visuals are from the 2020 video, where Pichai addressed graduates, but the audio was altered.
After this, we checked the probability of the viral video clip being created by AI. We checked the viral video with the help of Locus.ai and found that it was most likely created by AI.
Our partner, DAU (an initiative of MCA), contacted ElevenLabs, which confirmed that the audio was synthetic, generated with the help of AI.
Further confirmation came from the Global Online Deepfake Detection System (GODDS), which also concluded that the video was AI-generated.
DAU checked this video through TruMedia as well and their analysis also confirmed extensive manipulation of the original clip. The overall analysis confirmed this video to be synthetic media with a confidence score of 100 percent.
Our investigation shows that the video of Sundar Pichai promoting the investment platform is a deep fake.
Conclusion: The video of Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., which is going viral with the claim of promoting a fake and fictitious investment platform called Google Invest, is a deep fake. The original video is from 2020, in which Sundar Pichai shared his struggle experiences and learnings while encouraging the students graduating in the class of 2020. This deep fake video has been created by adding a synthetic AI audio clip of Sundar Pichai’s voice to this video clip.