Deepfake detection tool Sensity finds the video ‘suspicious’ with a 95% confidence level

Claim: Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao has launched and is endorsing an online casino application. 

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The video posted on August 9 has gained 7.4 million views, 37,000 reactions, 5,800 comments, and 1,800 shares, as of writing.

The video purportedly shows an interview of Pacquiao with ABS-CBN news anchor Karen Davila.

The chyron reads, “Bagong mobile application ni Manny Pacquiao na pinag-uusapan ng buong bansa.” (Manny Pacquiao’s new mobile application that’s being talked about nationwide,)

In the video, the Filipino boxing legend guarantees that new players have a high chance of winning. He encourages people to download the app and start playing, implying that those who haven’t done so are “lazy.”

It also features a person purportedly vouching for the supposed high returns from the online casino application. 

The facts: Deepfake detection tool Sensity has found that Pacquiao’s video endorsing an online casino app is a deepfake.

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines a deepfake as “an image or recording that has been convincingly altered and manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was not actually done or said.”

The tool’s face manipulation check flagged the video as “suspicious” with a 95% confidence level. Sensity’s voice analysis also deemed the material “suspicious” with a 62.1% confidence rate.

“High confidence indicates that the detector has found definite signals of AI generation or manipulation. Minimum confidence for this detector is 50%,” Sensity noted.

A closer examination of the video reveals unnatural mouth movements and glitches, consistent with Sensity’s findings that the video was manipulated through “lipsync.” 

The tool also identified the faces of Davila and Pacquiao as “fake faces,” with 94.6% and 84.5% confidence levels, respectively.

To date, Pacquiao has collaborated with only one online gaming platform, M88 Mansion — in 2022. Rappler asked Pacquiao’s camp if the partnership has been extended. This story will be updated once they respond.

Rappler has also fact-checked a similar claim about the supposed online casino endorsement by Pacquiao last July.

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AI and disinformation: Human rights advocacy group Freedom House found that disinformation peddlers are increasingly using AI-generated images, audio, and text, “making the truth easier to distort and harder to discern.”

In the Global Fact 11 conference last July,  experts warned that AI poses a significant challenge for fact-checking elections, as newsrooms often lack the tools to verify AI-generated content.

This is crucial for democracies, given that 2024 expects to see at least 50 elections worldwide.

With the Philippines set to hold its midterm elections in 2025, there has been a notable increase in the spread of AI-generated disinformation. – James Patrick Cruz/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.