Tharoor upset by AI-generated fake video, not just for misinformation, but also for bad English

Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor has been upset by an AI-generated 'fake news' video of him, which credits Pakistan for resolving the T20 World Cup standoff with India.

The 24-second alleged deepfake video may have been superimposed onto an interaction the Congress leader had with media persons from inside his car. It bears the watermark of a popular news agency to make it appear authentic.

However, there were a couple of dead giveaways in the video, which Tharoor spotted easily. "... not even very good. Neither my language nor my voice," Tharoor posted on X.

The former diplomat, known for his impeccable command of English, could never speak like the fake version. For example, let's consider the first part of the passage: "I think, how Pakistan played is brilliant. I don't know how they would do on the field. But what they did diplomatically was absolute brilliance."

The above sentences have issues with grammar, punctuation, and, not to mention, flow. As for 'I don't know how they would do on the field', Tharoor has proven time and again that one can trust his vocabulary more than anything else, so he should at least say 'perform' in place of 'would do'.

Also, Tharoor is more likely to say 'absolutely brilliant' than absolute brilliance. Then, of course, the accent is nothing like Tharoor's.

The video was posted on X by a verified user with Pakistan-based credentials at least 20 hours before the time of writing of this report. The union government's new IT rules, set to come into effect on February 20, state that deepfake videos will be taken down from social media platforms within three hours.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), prodded by its government, recently made a u-turn after initially announcing that the national team will not play against India in a T20 World Cup group match in Colombo on February 15.