By Hazel Gandhi
A digitally altered video of Anant Ambani, director of Jio platforms and Reliance Retail and son of industrialist Mukesh Ambani, is viral online with the false claim that he recently announced monetary awards for Indians to celebrate his recent pre-wedding ceremony at Jamnagar, Gujarat.
BOOM found that the claims are false and the video has been created using an AI-generated voice clone of Ambani.
In the 16-second clip, Anant Ambani is purportedly talking about a reward that Indians can avail by downloading his gaming app. The post leads to an app called 909best on the Google Play Store.
The video is being shared on Facebook without any caption.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Also Read:Old Prega News Ad Falsely Shared As Congress' Mahalaxmi Scheme Campaign
FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the claims are false and Anant Ambani has not endorsed any such gaming app; the video has been created using an AI-generated voice clone.
We noticed a microphone of news agency ANI behind the text plate in the viral video and searched for Ambani's original interview on YouTube and found that it was shared on February 26, 2024. The video was titled '“Shri Ganesh resides in elephants…” Anant Ambani serves rescued animals through ‘Vantara’"
Ambani's byte begins from 0:57 of this video. This part has been lifted from the original video and can be seen in the viral clip with a fake audio of Ambani overlaid on it.
In this interview, Ambani is heard speaking about Vantara, his program to rescue and rehabilitate animals, especially elephants. The interview carries no statement by Ambani regarding a monetary reward for Indians as claimed in the viral video.
We also ran the audio clip of Ambani's statement through Itisaar, a deepfake detection tool developed by IIT-Jodhpur, that estimated the voice to be fake.
