#FactCheck- Edited Video Falsely Shows Aaj Tak Anchor Anjana Om Kashyap Apologizing

Introduction

India plans to draft the first AI regulations framework. The draft will be discussed and debated in June-July this year as stated by Union Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajeev Chandrasekhar. He aims to harness AI for economic growth, healthcare, and agriculture, ensuring its significant impact. The Indian government plans to fully utilise AI for economic growth, focusing on healthcare, drug discovery, agriculture, and farmer productivity. 

Government Approach to Regulating AI 

Chandrasekhar stated that the government's approach to AI regulation involves establishing principles and a comprehensive list of harms and criminalities. They prefer clear platform standards to address bias and misuse during model training rather than regulating AI at specific stages of its development. Union Minister Chandrasekhar also highlights the importance of legal compliance and the risks faced by entrepreneurs who disregard regulations in the digital economy. He warned of "severe consequences" for non-compliance. 

Addressing the opening session of the two-day Nasscom leadership summit in Mumbai, the Union minister added that the intention is to harness AI for economic growth and address potential risks and harms. Mr. Chandrasekhar stated that the government is committed to developing AI-skilled individuals. He also highlighted the importance of a global governance framework that deals with the safety and trust of AI.

Union Minister Chandrasekhar also said that 900 million Indians online and 1.3 billion people will be connected to the global internet soon, providing India with both an opportunity and a responsibility to collaborate on regulations to establish legal safeguards that protect consumers and citizens. He further added that the framework is being retrofitted to address the complexity and impact of AI in safety infrastructure. The goal is to ensure legal guardrails for Al, a kinetic enabler of the digital economy, safety and trust, and accountability for those using the AI platform.

Prioritizing Safety and Trust in AI Development

Union minister Chandrasekhar announced that the framework will be discussed at the upcoming Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) event, a multi-stakeholder initiative with 29 member countries aiming to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting research on AI-related priorities. Chandrasekhar emphasises the importance of safety and trust in generative AI development. He believes that every platform must be legally accountable for any harm it causes or enables and should not enable criminality. He advocated for safe and trustworthy AI.

Conclusion

India is drafting its first AI regulation framework, as highlighted by Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar. This framework aims to harness the potential of AI while ensuring safety, trust, and accountability. The framework will focus on principles, comprehensive standards, and legal compliance to navigate the complexities of AI's impact on sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and the digital economy. India recognises the need for robust legal safeguards to protect citizens and foster innovation and economic growth while fostering a culture of trustworthy AI development.

References:

• https://www.livemint.com/ai/artificial-intelligence/india-to-come-up-with-ai-regulations-framework-by-june-july-this-year-rajeev-chandrasekhar-msde-11708409300377.html
• https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/india-to-develop-draft-ai-framework-by-june-july-chandrasekhar/articleshow/107865548.cms
• https://newsonair.gov.in/News?title=Government-to-come-out-with-draft-regulatory-framework-for-Artificial-Intelligence-by-July-2024&id=477637

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Executive Summary

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Mumbai’s Mira–Bhayandar bridge has recently been in the news due to its unusual design. In this context, a photograph is going viral on social media showing a bus seemingly stuck on the bridge. Some users are also sharing the image while claiming that it is from Sonpur subdivision in Bihar. However, an research by the CyberPeace has found that the viral image is not real. The bridge shown in the image is indeed the Mira–Bhayandar bridge, which is under discussion because its design causes it to suddenly narrow from four lanes to two lanes.  That said, the bridge is not yet operational, and the viral image showing a bus stuck on it has been created using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Claim

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An Instagram user shared the viral image on January 29, 2026, with the caption:“Are Indian taxpayers happy to see that this is funded by their money?” The link, archive link, and screenshot of the post can be seen below.

• https://www.instagram.com/p/DUE9EImipPe/?hl=am-et 
• https://archive.ph/JEMan 

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Fact Check: 

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To verify the claim, we first conducted a Google Lens reverse image search. This led us to a post shared by X (formerly Twitter) user Manoj Arora on January 29. While the bridge structure in that image matches the viral photo, no bus is visible in the original post.This raised suspicion that the viral image had been digitally manipulated.

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• https://x.com/manoj_216/status/2016721663124000872?s=20

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We then ran the viral image through the AI detection tool Hive Moderation, which flagged it as over 99% likely to be AI-generated

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Conclusion

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The CyberPeace research confirms that while the Mira–Bhayandar bridge is real and has been in the news due to its design, the viral image showing a bus stuck on the bridge has been created using AI tools. Therefore, the image circulating on social media is misleading.

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For more than a century, cinema has evolved alongside technology. Sound transformed silent films, colour changed visual storytelling, computer-generated imagery expanded the limits of imagination, and streaming reshaped how audiences experience films. Each transformation brought uncertainty, but Artificial Intelligence represents a different kind of shift. It is not merely changing how films are made; it is beginning to challenge who, or what, gets to create and perform them.

This debate has moved from theory to reality with Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated performer created by Particle 6 through its AI talent division Xicoia. After months of discussion surrounding the role of artificial performers in entertainment, Norwood is now set to headline her own feature film, Misaligned which is a project that places artificial intelligence at the centre of both the production process and the story itself. The film is described as a comedy-drama following an AI character without a tangible existence. The story follows that, guided by another AI character, she begins developing ambitions, emotions, and a desire to understand what it means to become “human” The premise of the movie is intentionally self-reflective. An AI performer, whose very existence has raised questions about authenticity and creativity, will now portray a character experiencing those same conflicts.

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AI as storyteller?

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Using Artificial Intelligence in filmmaking is not recent, for years production studios have used technology for visual effects, editing assistance, restoration, recommendation systems, and production planning. The emergence of AI-generated performers, however, introduces a far more complex question, can AI replace the actors who are core to storytelling?

When Tilly was first introduced at the Zurich film festival in late 2025 by the Dutch producer Eline Van Der Velden, CEO and Founder of Particle 6,  introduced it as a hybrid model of film-making, where there are directors, producers, production team but a "synthetic performer" in the lead role and a comprehensive AI-experts team. Van Der Velden argued that human creativity was not being replaced but supplemented by AI.

This was not well received by the film community. Actors like Emily Blunt and SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild- American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) a US labor organization representing roughly 160,000 professionals across the entertainment and media industries, including actors, performers, journalists, musicians, and voice actors, released a statement condemning this project with synthetic performer. They emphasised that ‘creativity is, and should remain, human-centered. The union is opposed to the replacement of human performers by synthetics.’ 

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The Question of Authenticity

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Acting has historically been understood as an interpretation of human experience. Performers bring personal histories, emotions, cultural backgrounds, and individual perspectives into their roles.  The criticism is that an AI actor does not exist in a tangible form and essentially has no real story or background of any kind. Particle 6 describes Tilly only as a twenty-something who lives in London and loves coffee which is a very shallow context and has no personality at all. The film is also set in the fictional "Tillyverse," not a real place and exists on some cloud system reinforcing the sense that there is no lived reality behind the character.

At their core, AI performers are outputs of generative systems rather than individuals with lived experience or personal artistic interpretation. These systems learn by identifying patterns from vast datasets and generating results based on existing material, which raises questions about whether such performances can be considered original creative expression at all. Tilly Norwood's music video ‘Taking the Lead’ illustrated this gap in practice, drawing attention to inconsistencies in natural emotion, visual continuity, and expression across scenes.

Human actors, by contrast, bring authenticity and emotional depth shaped by real experience and creative interpretation which are qualities that recognition and awards have traditionally been built around. If a performance is produced through algorithms trained on existing creative patterns, a fundamental question follows: what exactly is being celebrated, the technology, the final output, or the humans guiding the system?

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Creativity, Consent, and the Legal Grey Areas

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AI performers also raise significant questions about intellectual property, personality rights, consent, and compensation. Existing legal and contractual frameworks were primarily designed around human performers who are individuals who negotiate compensation, own aspects of their identity, and participate in the wider cultural ecosystem surrounding cinema. However, an AI actor challenges these traditional assumptions. If a digital performer does not possess legal personhood, creative ownership, or independent rights, questions emerge regarding who should receive recognition and financial benefits: the developers, production studios, directors, or the human creators involved in building the technology?

Also if a digital actor’s expressions, movements, or style are influenced by thousands of existing performers, determining ownership becomes complicated. Who controls an AI-generated performance? Who deserves credit? Should performers have rights over how their likeness, voice, or style influences future AI systems?

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Any advantages?

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The most significant advantage of AI-assisted filmmaking may lie in what it offers smaller production houses and independent creators. By reducing certain production costs, AI tools could let filmmakers with limited resources attempt ambitious ideas that were previously out of reach. Beyond this production advantage, however, the acceptance of AI performers themselves remains uncertain. Projects like Misaligned are therefore less a proven shift in cinema than an industry experiment testing how far technology can move into a traditionally human creative space.

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The Future of Cinema: Replacement or Reinvention?

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Every major technological transformation in cinema has created fears about what might be lost, yet cinema has consistently adapted by absorbing new technologies into its storytelling. AI may follow a similar path, but the stakes are different as it does not simply change the tools available to artists, it challenges the definitions of creativity, authorship, and performance itself.

Much of cinema's economic and cultural life is really built on the bond between audiences and actors. It's actors who drive ticket sales, build loyal fan followings, and become cultural figures in their own right, through interviews, public appearances, and the visible journey of training, struggle, and growth that shapes a career. An AI-generated performer can mimic parts of that celebrity image, but it can't actually show up for any of it the way a person can. Handing central creative roles to artificial personalities also raises a fairness question, especially at a time when so many human performers are already struggling to find work.

Whether audiences will really embrace fully synthetic performers as stand-ins for human actors is still an open question. Misaligned may end up being the first real test of that. Early reaction to Tilly Norwood has been largely critical within the industry and among audiences. How viewers respond to Misaligned itself will be an early test of whether that scepticism holds. 

Cinema has always found ways to absorb new technology, but AI is testing something deeper than the tools filmmakers use. As machines get better at telling human stories, the real challenge is making sure the human element behind those stories doesn't get lost.

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References

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• https://theprint.in/feature/tilly-norwood-tillyverse-misaligned-particle6-ai-actor/2980654/
• https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tilly-norwood-ai-generated-actor-feature-film/ 
• https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-statement-synthetic-performer
• https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/ai-actor-tilly-norwood-movie-debut-misaligned-1236638719/

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