New Delhi: A video circulating on social media claims that Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni is promoting a betting platform. The video appears to show Dhoni in an interview discussing his relationship with money.
During the interview, the host asks, “Money has become a center point for so many of us. Was there a point you cared about money, and or do you still care about money or what is the relationship with money?”
Dhoni seems to respond, “Money is an important part of life. During my struggling days, I used to make money from this gaming website called unicon365.com. I managed to earn Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 every month, which was enough for my food and expenses in those days. Now I don’t have any problem with it because different people get motivated with different things.”
Archived versions of such posts can be found here and here.
However, our investigation found that the video was manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI) to overlay fabricated audio onto the footage, making it appear that Dhoni endorsed the illegal betting website.
How we found the truth
To investigate, we conducted a reverse image search on the keyframes of the viral video. This search revealed that the clip was fabricated using footage from a video (archived here) published on YouTube by the creator management company RIGI on 27 October, 2023. The original content was a 28-minute panel discussion featuring Dhoni, hosted by comedian and YouTuber Tanmay Bhat along with content creator Sharan Hegde.
The viral clip was pieced together from two separate segments of the interview. The first portion, in which Bhat asks about money and Dhoni replies, “Money is an important part of life,” is from the 23:18 to 23:32 timestamp of the original video. The second portion, in which Dhoni says, “Now I don’t have any problem with it because different people get motivated with different things,” appears from the 23:59 to 24:05 timestamp.
The statement in which Dhoni allegedly mentions earning money from Unicon365.com was not part of the original footage. This segment was overlaid onto the viral clip using manipulated audio. While the voice in the fabricated portion bears some resemblance to Dhoni’s, it sounds monotonous and artificial, indicating the use of AI-generated audio.
Advanced analysis tools confirmed these findings. TrueMedia’s deepfake detection tool determined with 100 percent confidence that AI-generated audio was used in the video. The tool also found 53 percent evidence that the audio was cloned using AI.
Further examination by the Misinformation Combat Alliance’s Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU), which Logically Facts is a part of, also confirmed the manipulation. Hive’s audio deepfake detector identified the first 10 seconds of the audio as authentic but flagged the rest as altered. Hiya AI Voice Detection also concluded that the voice was likely AI-generated.
What is Unicon365.com?
Unicon365 is an illegal betting platform operating in India. Indian gambling laws, governed by the Public Gambling Act of 1867, prohibit games of chance and gaming houses but allow skill-based games under certain circumstances. A 1996 Supreme Court ruling classified games such as fantasy sports as “games of skill”, but betting on live sports remains illegal as it is considered a game of chance. In 2023, the Indian government banned 22 such illegal platforms.
Although Unicon365 claims certification from eCOGRA, a London-based gambling standards agency, this organisation does not operate in India, further raising questions about the platform’s legitimacy.
This is not the first instance of misinformation involving Unicon365. Previously, a similar deepfake video falsely portraying Indian cricketer Virat Kohli as endorsing the platform was widely circulated. Logically Facts debunked that video as well, exposing its manipulation.
The verdict
The claim that MS Dhoni promoted an illegal betting platform through a viral video is false. The footage was manipulated using AI-generated audio to fabricate statements that Dhoni never made. Several advanced detection tools confirmed that the audio was artificially generated and overlaid onto the original video to create the misleading clip.
This story was originally published by Logically Facts as part of the Shakti Collective. Apart from the headline, excerpt and introduction, this story has not been edited by ThePrint staff.
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