Fact Check: Did Sudha Murthy Ask People To Invest Rs. 21,000 In Quantum AI?

A video showing Sudha Murty, founder and chairperson of Infosys Foundation, talking about an investment platform and guaranteeing results while encouraging people to invest ₹21,000 immediately is being shared on social media.

• In the clip, Murty prompts viewers to click on the provided link to register.

An archived version of this video can be seen here. (Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Is it true?: No, the video is a deepfake and has been altered using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

How did we find out the truth?: We ran a reverse image search on the video, which led us to a YouTube video shared by channel named 'Blue Sky' on 30 January 2020.

• The video featured Murty at a talk about "philanthropy, gender equality, and more," according to the video's description.

• In the whole video, she did not mention the investment platform or encourage people to spend any money or share any information.

The viral clip uses visuals from Murty's talk with Blue Sky. (Source: Facebook/YouTube/Altered by The Quint)

On observing the video, we noticed that there was a slight mismatch between the audio in the clip and Murty's mouth movements.

• Due to this, we ran the video through Contrails.ai and Hive Moderation's deepfake detection tools.

• Hive Moderation's tool gave the video an aggregate score of 99.3 percent, stating that the video was "likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content."

Their analysis was certain that the audio was spoofed. (Source: Hive Moderation/Screenshot)

Contrails.ai's report too, found that both the video and audio elements were manipulated using AI,

Contrails.ai detected manipulation in the audio and video elements of the clip. (Source: Contrails.ai/Screenshot)

It added that the video used LipSync technique and lowered the resolution of the video, "creating an effect of realism." For the audio element, it said that "Mrs Sudha Murty's voice clone is used."

The link shared with the claim leads users to a fake The Times of India article with a URL mentioned 'Castle Hotel Sultan India', which also features billionaire Elon Musk.

This is fake report replicating the Times of India's layout for web articles. (Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Conclusion: A deepfake of Sudha Murty is being shared with the false claim that she promoted an investment platform named Quantum AI.

(This story was originally published by The Quint, and republished by NDTV as part of the Shakti Collective)