By Srijanee Chakraborty
A video featuring AI-generated voice clones of cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty and a news anchor is circulating with false claims that the former was beaten up on air by a pharmaceutical company representative for promoting a natural cure for cardiovascular diseases.
The video also contains unrelated visuals of a fight caught on live television to claim that Dr Shetty was punched by the representative on his face.
BOOM found that an AI voice clone of Dr Devi Shetty has been used to promote a plant-based drug for hypertension and high blood pressure.
The video, with an Aaj Tak logo on top right corner, appears to show a news bulletin reporting about the attack on Dr Shetty. In the later part of the video Dr Shetty's AI-generated voice clone mentions that he has developed an exemplary drug using natural ingredients to treat cardiovascular diseases. A Facebook user shared the video with the caption, "Shocking incident of attack on Dr. Deviprasad Shetty, famous cardiologist* *Please make it viral."
Click here to see the video and here to view an archive.
The video is also circulating on WhatsApp with the caption, "Renown Cardiologist Dr Devi Sethi get trashed in front of National TV. Really shame. Let govt take action on the pharmaceutical company." (sic.)
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Fact Check
BOOM found the visuals of the scuffle is from an unrelated video and AI voice clones of the news anchor and Dr Devi Shetty have been used to promote a drug for cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, we did not find any news report about Dr Devi Shetty being attacked on air.
BOOM first ran a reverse image search on the keyframes of the video which led us to a YouTube video with identical visuals of the fight. We found a longer version of the video uploaded on YouTube by News Nation on January 13, 2017 with the caption, "Ex-Bigg Boss 10 contestant Swami Om indulges in scuffle, faces protests in studio."
Click here to see the video. Below is a comparison of screengrabs of the scuffle seen in the viral video and YouTube news report.
AI Voice clones of Dr Devi Shetty and news anchor
We extracted the audio clips of both Dr Shetty and the news anchor separately from the viral video and ran them through the Loccus.ai tool. The results of both the audio clips show that they were generated using artificial intelligence.
The Loccus.ai results of Devi Shetty's voice clip can be seen below.
The Loccus.ai results of the news anchor's voice clip can be seen below.
Further, BOOM ran a reverse image search on the keyframes where Dr Shetty can be seen speaking in the viral video. We found an interview of Dr Shetty featuring the same visuals but different audio uploaded by NDTV Profit on 24 November, 2022.
Click here to view.
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