PM Modi says deepfakes one of the biggest threats, cites his morphed Garba video

NEW DELHI,NOV 17 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that deepfakes are one of the biggest threats that the Indian system is facing at the moment, adding that these can cause chaos in society. The Prime Minister also urged the media to educate people about the rising problem.

Addressing journalists at BJP’s Diwali Milan programme at the party’s headquarters in Delhi, the Prime Minister said that both citizens and media need to be very vigilant when it comes to the misuse of artifical intelligence for deepfakes.

PM Modi’s remarks came a day after India Today did a deep dive into the threats posed by deepfakes. It included how deepfakes are posing substantial challenges to the integrity of electoral democracy in the ongoing assembly elections, making it hard to distinguish between fake and real clips. The deep dive highlighted contributing threats of deepfakes such as doctored images, fake video clips and artificial voiceovers, targeting politicians.

PM Modi also cited a deepfake video of him doing Garba, which India Today fact checked, during the address. Calling the video “very real”, he added that he has not “played Garba” since he was young.

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In the viral video, a man resembling the PM can be seen dancing with some women. However, India Today Fact Check found that the person in the video is actually the Prime Minister’s lookalike, an actor called Vikas Mahante.

A X user also shared a screenshot of Mahante’s Instagram story. India Today Fact Check found that Mahante had shared a video on November 7 announcing that he was invited as a chief guest at a ‘Diwali Mela’ in London. At one point in this video, he can be seen standing on the same Garba stage as the deepfake, and his attire was also the same.

Several actors such as Kajol, Katrina Kaif and Rashmika Mandanna recently fell prey to deepfakes.

-PTI