Lighthouse Journalism came across a viral video that featured a man petting a tiger on the streets of India. Many claimed that the video was from Pench, a national park known for its tiger population in Madhya Pradesh, and several posts also claimed that the drunk man offered the tiger some alcohol.
During the investigation, we found that the video was AI-generated and the claim was fake.
Claim:
Instagram user viraltrollz shared the video with a detailed claim on their profile.
Other users are also sharing the same video with a similar claim.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by running a combination of keyword search and reverse image search.
We found a post that clarified that the video was AI-generated.
We found an article on a Hindi news outlet, ‘The Sootr’.
The article said: द सूत्र ने पेंच टाइगर रिजर्व के उप निदेशक रजनीश सिंह से इस वीडियो की सच्चाई जानने के लिए संपर्क किया। रजनीश सिंह ने वीडियो को फर्जी बताते हुए कहा कि यह वीडियो पेंच टाइगट रिजर्व की सड़क पर नहीं, बल्कि कहीं और की जगह का हो सकता है।
उन्होंने यह भी स्पष्ट किया कि किसी बाघ के साथ ऐसी स्थिति पैदा नहीं हो सकती, जब तक कि वह बाघ पालतू न हो। इससे यह स्पष्ट होता है कि वीडियो पूरी तरह से गलत हो सकता है और इसे एआई के जरिए भी जेनरेट किया जा सकता है।
Translation: The Sootr contacted Rajneesh Singh, the Deputy Director of Pench Tiger Reserve, to ascertain the truth of this video. Rajneesh Singh called the video fake, stating that it might be from somewhere else and not on the road of Pench Tiger Reserve.
He also clarified that such a situation cannot arise with a tiger unless the tiger is domesticated. This makes it clear that the video may be completely wrong and could have been generated through AI as well.
We then ran the keyframes through an AI-detection tool, wasitai.com.
The tool gave the result: There is some chance that this image, or parts of it, was created by AI.
We also ran the video through HIVE moderation.com, which suggested that the video was AI-generated.
Conclusion: The viral video that shows a drunk man petting and offering alcohol to a tiger in Pench, Madhya Pradesh, is AI-generated. The viral claim is fake.
