Indian billionaire Narayana Murthy has found himself embroiled in a deepfake scam after a fake video of him claiming that people could make a fortune through his new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Quantum software went viral.
The morphed video shows the founder of multinational IT corporation Infosys explaining the advantages of the quantum computing software created by his team, asserting that users can potentially earn $3,000 (approximately INR 250,000) on the very first day of use. He also said that the AI Quantum software can help stock market investors earn money.
The scammers morphed the original video of Murthy, which was recorded a year ago at the "Business Today Mindrush" economic event where he discussed the Indian economy and entrepreneurs.
The creators of the deepfake tried to remove watermarks and other identifiers through cropping of Murthy's image in order for the video to appear as genuine as possible
However, the video showed striking discrepancies between Murthy's lip movements and the speech in the audio, further suggesting that it is a deepfake.
In another phoney video, Murthy can be seen talking about the AI quantum project, which he is working on in collaboration with Elon Musk.
Narayana Murthy is not the only celebrity involved in a deepfake scam. Many Bollywood actresses like Rashmika Mandanna, Kajol, Katrina Kaif, Alia Bhatt and Priyanka Chopra Jonas have fallen prey to deepfake scams, spreading fake news and misinformation and sparking a widespread outcry on social media.
The Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said the Indian government is working on bringing in new regulations soon to tackle deepfakes. He has also directed social media companies to identify and block deceptive videos.