After Ayodhya sets Guinness record on Diwali, AI-generated image of illuminated river bank goes viral

by Prantik Ali

An aerial photograph, apparently showing Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya brightly lit with diyas on the occasion of Diwali is viral on social media. Users have been sharing the image, taking pride in the extravagant display.

On October 20, @ocjain4 posted the viral image calling it “Mesmerizing Ayodhya”. (Archive)

Note that Alt News has previously debunked several viral claims made by this user before. See here, here, here and here.

X user @chixxsays posted the photo with a caption that countries such as China or US could not trump the ‘divine beauty’ found in India. At the time this article was written, the post had 1.7 million views and was reshared over 4,000 times. (Archive) 

X user @Sassy_Soul also posted the viral image. (Archive) 

Several others on X, such as @shambhav15, @BattaKashmiri, @theskindoctor13 and @JaipurDialogues also amplified the picture. (Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4) 

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The picture was also viral on Facebook. A news organisation, The Sikkim Today, shared it with the headline ‘Ayodhya illuminated with 26 lakh diyas on Tihar festival, setting a record of light and devotion’.

Fact Check

The angle of the photograph made us doubt that it was a real image. A closer look showed several distortions that typically characterize AI-generated photographs:

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We also looked at multiple photos and videos of the Sarayu river bank in Ayodhya when it is illuminated on festivals and could not find a location that matched the viral image. However, to be sure, we checked if any major news outlet used the same picture, citing a source, but found none.

Based on The Sikkim Today’s headline, we looked with keywords ‘Ayodhya’ and ’26 lakh diyas’ and found several news reports on a new Guinness World Record being created for the ‘largest display of oil lamps’ at Ayodhya this year. On October 19, a record 26 lakh diyas were lit up along the banks of the Sarayu river. However, we noticed that the viral photo did not feature in any news report. (Links: 1, 2, 3)

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A reverse image search led us to this X post @WallzByAI, which we believe is the original image that was circulated as a real aerial photograph. This was the first instance we found of the photo being shared on social media.

While the username itself suggests that the images are AI-generated, a reply by the user on October 22 clarified that the viral photo was indeed generated using artificial intelligence.

An AI detector platform Sightengine also said that there was a 99% likelihood of the image being AI-generated.

 

Thus, while the Sarayu river bank in Ayodhya was lit up with more than 26 lakh diyas on the occasion of Diwali, the image shared by many on social media is clearly AI-generated.

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