Deepfake video of billionaire Mukesh Ambani circulated to promote a stock market forum

What is the claim?

A video of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani purportedly promoting a stock market forum is circulating widely on social media. In the viral video, Ambani can be heard talking about starting a stock forum community where the "most popular stocks and recommended stocks in the latest stock market" are introduced. He further says, "...(We) teach you how to make money by trading in stocks, provide financial security strategies, stock investment skills, stock selection methods and share valuable investment advice. And for market analysis, we have a professional analysis team to assist you as well as investors who have already made money to share their experiences. Do you really understand the stock market? Come join us now (sic)." 

The video was shared on the Facebook page 'Evercore 2,' where it gained over 3,500 likes. The accompanying caption appealed people to join a group, 'Stock Guru,' to make a 'steady profit in the stock market.' An archived version of this post can be accessed here.

However, a video of Ambani speaking at the 2024 Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit event was fabricated to create the viral deepfake video.

What did we find?

The viral video contains the logo of the news agency 'ANI' overlaid on the top-right corner, and 'Vibrant Gujarat 2024 10-12 Jan' written on a banner/screen visible behind Ambani, who is seen speaking from a podium. Taking a cue from this, we traced the original video published by ANI on its official YouTube channel on January 10.

Comparison between the viral video and the original clip. (Source: X/YouTube/Modified by Logically Facts)

The YouTube video shows Ambani speaking at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, which took place in Gujarat between January 10 and 12. We watched the full ANI video in which Ambani spoke about business growth in Gujarat and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We found no mention of anything about a stock market forum, confirming that the audio has been manipulated in the viral video. It is quite clear that a portion of the ANI footage was manipulated to create the deepfake video. 

State-run broadcaster DD India also published the same video of Ambani on YouTube on January 10. The video was titled "Reliance Industries Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani addresses in Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit."

Discrepancies that point toward AI manipulation

We noticed that the lip movement in the viral clip doesn't synchronize with the audio, and Ambani's voice doesn't resemble his actual voice. Also, very unusual lip and tongue movements mar the viral clip, indicating its manipulation using artificial intelligence (AI). 

Logically Facts also ran the video through Itisaar, an application designed by professors from the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, Mayank Vatsa, and Richa Singh, to conduct additional video analysis. The results marked the viral video as fake with a confidence score of 1, the maximum.

The use of such deepfake videos to promote fraudulent money-making schemes or dubious online investment platforms has increased in India recently, raising alarm among many. More on this here.

The verdict

A clip of Mukesh Ambani speaking at an event was fabricated to create a deepfake video. The billionaire didn't promote any stock market forum in the original video. Therefore, we have marked this claim as fake.