AI-generated images are falsely shared as real intimate photos of Mohammad Shami and Sania Mirza
Several photos (here, here, here, here, and here) featuring cricketer Mohammad Shami and tennis player Sania Mirza allegedly spending time together have been posted on social media lately. In these photos, we can see both of them hanging out at various locations. We fact-check these photos in this article.
Claim: Photos of Mohammad Shami and Sania Mirza spending time together.
Fact: These photos were neither shared by Sania Mirza nor Shami. All of them were generated using Artificial Intelligence tools. Hence, the claim made in the post is False.
To learn more about these photos, we went through the social media profiles of both Sania Mirza and Mohammad Shami to find out if any of the two had shared these photos. However, we found no such photos on their social media handles. Additionally, we did not find any media reports that carried these photos.
With a suspicion that these photos may have been generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, we ran the viral photos through AI content detection tools like True Media and Hive (archive link here). These tools confirmed that the photos were not real but generated using AI tools.
In December 2024, The Times of India reported (also read) that AI-generated images of the duo were being shared on social media as real photos. According to their report, when rumours of Sania Mirza and Mohammad Shami’s wedding started circulating, Sania MIrza’s father, Imran, ‘denied them, calling the claims baseless and stating that Sania hadn’t even met Shami.’
Additionally, during this search, we found that Mohammad Shami clarified rumours about his marriage to Sania Mirza during a podcast in July 2024. During a conversation with YouTuber Shubhankar Mishra, Shami called these rumours strange and dismissed them. He said people should refrain from making such memes about others’ lives.
Further, some of the users sharing these images on social media have mentioned in the description (here, here, and here) of their posts that the images have been generated using AI tools. People are resharing these images as real ones by ignoring these disclaimers.
Furthermore, similar images (here, here, and here) generated using Artificial Intelligence tools (here, here, and here) of cricketers Hardik Pandya and Mohammad Siraj, along with Sania Mirza and Shraddha Kapoor, respectively, were also shared as real ones.
To sum up, images generated using Artificial Intelligence tools are falsely shared as real photos of Mohammad Shami and Sania Mirza.