#FactCheck -AI-Generated Image Falsely Shows Kavya Maran Hugging Young Cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi
Executive Summary
A picture allegedly showing Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) owner Kavya Maran emotionally hugging young cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi has gone viral on social media. The image is being shared as a genuine photograph from a cricket-related event, with users claiming that Kavya Maran was seen embracing Vaibhav Suryavanshi. However, CyberPeace Research Wing research found the claim to be false. No credible news reports, official statements, or authentic photographs support the incident depicted in the viral image.
Claim
A Facebook user shared the viral image with the caption: “Kavya Maran Hug Vaibhav Suryavanshi 🥰🔥 #cricketnews #RRvsSRH” The link to the post and its screenshot are provided below.
Fact Check
During the research, we found no credible news reports, official statements, or authentic images confirming that Kavya Maran hugged Vaibhav Suryavanshi as shown in the viral picture. To further verify the image, it was analysed using AI detection tools, including Sightengine and Hive Moderation. Both tools indicated a high probability that the image was generated using Artificial Intelligence. The findings suggest that the viral photograph is not a genuine image captured at a real event but a digitally created visual.
Conclusion
Our research found that the viral image showing Kavya Maran emotionally hugging Vaibhav Suryavanshi is not authentic. The picture was generated using AI and does not depict a real incident.
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Executive Summary:
A video circulating on social media shows a group of people tearing Congress posters and raising controversial slogans. The clip is being shared with the claim that the individuals seen in the video are workers of the Congress party who were protesting against Rahul Gandhi and raising slogans against him. However, research by the CyberPeace found the viral claim to be misleading. Our research revealed that the video dates back to February 21, 2026. On that day, members of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) staged a protest outside a Congress office. During the demonstration, they raised slogans and tore Congress posters. The same video is now being circulated with a false narrative.
Claim
On February 24, 2026, a Facebook user shared the viral video with the caption:“Rebellion against Rahul Gandhi in Congress’ own stronghold! Party workers themselves tore posters and raised slogans — ‘Rahul Gandhi is a thief… a thief!’ This video exposes the internal truth of Congress. Congress itself is Muslim League.”
Fact Check
To verify the claim, we extracted key frames from the viral video and conducted a reverse image search using Google Lens. During the search, we found the same video uploaded on YouTube on February 21, 2026.
According to the description accompanying the video, BJP workers had staged a protest outside a Congress building. The report mentioned vandalism and stone-pelting during the protest, resulting in injuries to several individuals
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW-13mSvJ2c
Using this lead, we conducted a keyword search on Google and found a report published on February 21, 2026, by the Hindi news website Raj Express. The visuals in the report closely matched those seen in the viral clip.
According to the report, the protest in Bhopal was organized by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in response to a T-shirt protest staged by the Youth Congress during an AI Summit held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. The situation escalated when protesters marched toward the state Congress office in Shivaji Nagar. Police attempted to disperse the crowd using water cannons, but some protesters reportedly entered the Congress office premises, leading to tension.
Further, we found the same viral video on the official Facebook page of Indian National Congress - Madhya Pradesh, where it was posted on February 26, 2026. In the post, the Congress unit alleged that BJYM workers and BJP-affiliated individuals had entered the Congress office, vandalized property, and created chaos in the presence of police officials.
Conclusion
Our research found that the viral claim is misleading. The video is from February 21, 2026, when BJYM workers protested outside a Congress office and engaged in vandalism. The footage is now being falsely shared as evidence of an internal rebellion by Congress workers against Rahul Gandhi.
As AI language models become more powerful, they are also becoming more prone to errors. One increasingly prominent issue is AI hallucinations, instances where models generate outputs that are factually incorrect, nonsensical, or entirely fabricated, yet present them with complete confidence. Recently, ChatGPT released two new models—o3 and o4-mini, which differ from earlier versions as they focus more on step-by-step reasoning rather than simple text prediction. With the growing reliance on chatbots and generative models for everything from news summaries to legal advice, this phenomenon poses a serious threat to public trust, information accuracy, and decision-making.
What Are AI Hallucinations?
AI hallucinations occur when a model invents facts, misattributes quotes, or cites nonexistent sources. This is not a bug but a side effect of how Large Language Models (LLMs) work, and it is only the probability that can be reduced, not their occurrence altogether. Trained on vast internet data, these models predict what word is likely to come next in a sequence. They have no true understanding of the world or facts, they simulate reasoning based on statistical patterns in text. What is alarming is that the newer and more advanced models are producing more hallucinations, not fewer. seemingly counterintuitive. This has been prevalent reasoning-based models, which generate answers step-by-step in a chain-of-thought style. While this can improve performance on complex tasks, it also opens more room for errors at each step, especially when no factual retrieval or grounding is involved.
As per reports shared on TechCrunch, it mentioned that when users asked AI models for short answers, hallucinations increased by up to 30%. And a study published in eWeek found that ChatGPT hallucinated in 40% of tests involving domain-specific queries, such as medical and legal questions. This was not, however, limited to this particular Large Language Model, but also similar ones like DeepSeek. Even more concerning are hallucinations in multimodal models like those used for deepfakes. Forbes reports that some of these models produce synthetic media that not only look real but are also capable of contributing to fabricated narratives, raising the stakes for the spread of misinformation during elections, crises, and other instances.
It is also notable that AI models are continually improving with each version, focusing on reducing hallucinations and enhancing accuracy. New features, such as providing source links and citations, are being implemented to increase transparency and reliability in responses.
The Misinformation Dilemma
The rise of AI-generated hallucinations exacerbates the already severe problem of online misinformation. Hallucinated content can quickly spread across social platforms, get scraped into training datasets, and re-emerge in new generations of models, creating a dangerous feedback loop. However, it helps that the developers are already aware of such instances and are actively charting out ways in which we can reduce the probability of this error. Some of them are:
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG): Instead of relying purely on a model’s internal knowledge, RAG allows the model to “look up” information from external databases or trusted sources during the generation process. This can significantly reduce hallucination rates by anchoring responses in verifiable data.
- Use of smaller, more specialised language models: Lightweight models fine-tuned on specific domains, such as medical records or legal texts. They tend to hallucinate less because their scope is limited and better curated.
Furthermore, transparency mechanisms such as source citation, model disclaimers, and user feedback loops can help mitigate the impact of hallucinations. For instance, when a model generates a response, linking back to its source allows users to verify the claims made.
Conclusion
AI hallucinations are an intrinsic part of how generative models function today, and such a side-effect would continue to occur until foundational changes are made in how models are trained and deployed. For the time being, developers, companies, and users must approach AI-generated content with caution. LLMs are, fundamentally, word predictors, brilliant but fallible. Recognising their limitations is the first step in navigating the misinformation dilemma they pose.
References
- https://www.eweek.com/news/ai-hallucinations-increase/
- https://www.resilience.org/stories/2025-05-11/better-ai-has-more-hallucinations/
- https://www.ekathimerini.com/nytimes/1269076/ai-is-getting-more-powerful-but-its-hallucinations-are-getting-worse/
- https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/08/asking-chatbots-for-short-answers-can-increase-hallucinations-study-finds/
- https://en.as.com/latest_news/is-chatgpt-having-robot-dreams-ai-is-hallucinating-and-producing-incorrect-information-and-experts-dont-know-why-n/
- https://www.newscientist.com/article/2479545-ai-hallucinations-are-getting-worse-and-theyre-here-to-stay/
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/05/06/why-ai-hallucinations-are-worse-than-ever/
- https://towardsdatascience.com/how-i-deal-with-hallucinations-at-an-ai-startup-9fc4121295cc/
- https://www.informationweek.com/machine-learning-ai/getting-a-handle-on-ai-hallucinations
Executive Summary
A video circulating widely on social media purportedly shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi referring to the recently signed defence agreement involving Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye during his Independence Day address from the Red Fort.
The clip carries an alleged statement in which Modi is heard saying that he had previously discussed the possibility of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye coming together with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is further purportedly heard claiming that Netanyahu had said the Gulf countries and Iran would be made to fight each other and eventually eliminated. The voice attributed to Modi allegedly concludes that his assessment had proved correct and that those involved were now looking for a way out of the situation.
An research by the CyberPeace Research Wing’s Research Wing found that the viral clip is misleading. The audio has been digitally altered and superimposed on footage from Modi’s Independence Day address. The alleged remarks do not feature in the Prime Minister’s original speech.
Claim
On August 16, Pakistan-based journalist Fakhar Ur Rehman (@Fakharrehman01) shared the video on X, claiming it showed Modi discussing the defence pact between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye during his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort. The accompanying video purportedly shows Modi saying that he had spoken to Netanyahu about the possibility of the three countries forming an alliance. According to the alleged remarks, Netanyahu had said that the Gulf nations and Iran would be encouraged to fight one another and eventually eliminated.
The speaker, purportedly Modi, is then heard saying that his prediction had turned out to be correct and that the parties involved were now worried about finding a way out of the situation.
https://x.com/Fakharrehman01/status/2088899788788117899?s=20
Fact Check
To verify whether the remarks were actually made by Modi, the Desk first searched Google using a combination of relevant keywords and looked for the complete recording of his Independence Day address. The search led to the official YouTube channel of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO India), which carries the full recording of Modi’s speech uploaded on August 15, 2026. The Desk reviewed the entire one-hour-and-39-minute video and found no instance in which Modi made the statements heard in the viral clip. The absence of the alleged remarks from the original recording raised concerns that the audio had been added or modified.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDHjd3GUU7Y
The Desk then cross-checked the Prime Minister’s speech with its official written transcript available on the Press Information Bureau (PIB) website. A review of the transcript found no mention of a proposed or existing alliance involving Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye. It also contained no reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the context described in the viral video.
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2156749®=48&lang=2
Since the video appeared to contain altered audio, the Desk next separated the soundtrack from the footage for further examination. The extracted audio was analysed using Resemble AI, an AI-based audio detection tool. The tool did not conclusively establish that the recording had been digitally manipulated. However, its assessment indicated that the voice could be an impersonation, adding further doubt to the authenticity of the audio attributed to Modi. The Desk also compared the audio findings with the original speech and its official transcript. Neither source contained the statements being circulated in the viral clip.
Conclusion
The video does not show Prime Minister Narendra Modi making the remarks attributed to him about Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Israel. The footage is from his Independence Day address, but the audio carrying the alleged comments has been digitally manipulated and superimposed. Analysis by Resemble AI further indicated that the voice may be an impersonation. Therefore, the claim that Modi made the alleged remarks about the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia-Türkiye alliance and Benjamin Netanyahu is false
