As the world celebrated Christmas on December 24, social media was flooded with festive images of celebrities dressed in Santa Claus outfits and sharing glimpses of their celebrations. Amid this buzz, an image has gone viral claiming to show Indian cricketer Hardik Pandya posing with his girlfriend Mahieka Sharma and his son, all dressed in Christmas-themed outfits.
Is the viral image real? Let’s find out.
The above post can be seen here. (Archive)
NM VERIFIED
NewsMobile verified the claim and found that the image is AI-generated.
The NM team initiated its verification by conducting a keyword search to check whether any credible media outlet had published the viral image showing Hardik Pandya with his son Agastya and his girlfriend. However, this search did not yield any results featuring the image on reliable platforms. The team then reviewed the official social media handles of Hardik Pandya and Mahieka Sharma, but the viral image was not found there either.
Upon closely examining the image, several discrepancies commonly associated with AI-generated visuals were observed. Hardik Pandya’s eyes appear blurred, Mahieka Sharma’s facial features look distorted and unnaturally placed, and the tattoos on Hardik Pandya’s hand seem unclear and inconsistent. Additionally, the child depicted as Agastya Pandya does not closely resemble him.
To confirm these findings, the viral image was analysed using Hive Moderation, an AI detection tool, which indicated that the image was AI-generated.
Hence, it is evident that the viral image claiming to show Hardik Pandya celebrating Christmas with Mahieka Sharma and his son Agastya is not real and has been created using artificial intelligence.
