Deepfake videos spark concern in India ahead of general election

Outburst of content is a worry in a country where digital illiteracy is widespread

- Debarshi Dasgupta India Correspondent

NEW DELHI - Several popular Indian television news anchors have found themselves in the spotlight in recent weeks for the wrong reasons.

The likes of Mr Ravish Kumar, Mr Arnab Goswami, Mr Sudhir Chaudhary and Ms Anjana Om Kashyap household names for were feamost Indian families tured in a deepfake video ad campaign to promote an alleged diabetes medication online.

Boom, an Indian fact-checking organisation, reported that the viral campaign was created by editing publicly available videos of these anchors. The videos, it said, were most likely doctored using artificial intelligence (AI) and overlaid with a fake voice-over mimicking that of the anchors in Hindi, a language that deepfake detection tools have yet to master.

Mr Kumar distanced himself from any such endorsement in a post on X on Dec 7.

Many other prominent Indians have also fallen prey in the last few months to an outburst of deepfake content that continues to blur the line between fiction and reality, as the tools to produce such content become more sophisticated and easily accessible.

A simple photograph of Mr Ratan Tata, one of India's top industrialists, was animated with AI and overlaid with a fake voice-over to endorse a dubious financial investment opportunity. In another instance, a publicly available video of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest person, was doctored with a fake voice-over to sell a similar investment option.

The trend is a worry for India, with its rapidly growing base of Internet users but also widespread digital illiteracy.