Fact Check: Vande Bharat will pass through snow-covered Kashmir. But this photo is AI
20-01-2025 ¦
20-01-2025 IST
A photo of a white and blue train in the middle of snow-covered mountains and tall trees is going viral on social media. Those sharing it claimed that this breathtaking view was from the Kashmir Valley and that this train was a Vande Bharat.
Sharing the photo on Facebook, one person wrote, "This photograph is not from Switzerland. It's from our beautiful India. The view of the Vande Bharat train traveling through the snow-covered valleys of Kashmir is truly breathtaking".
India Today Fact Check found that this photo is not real and likely made using Twitter’s Grok AI chatbot. However, the Vande Bharat Express will soon be launched in Kashmir.
OUR PROBE
We noticed a few inconsistencies in the viral photo. Being an electric train, Vande Bharat Express trains have high-rise pantographs that collect power from overhead electric wires running over the tracks. However, the pantographs are missing in the viral photo, and the electric wires are running on the side of the train instead of being overhead.
We also observed the word “GROK” written at the bottom-right corner of the viral picture. Grok is an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by xAI, a company founded by Elon Musk. Among other use cases, the chatbot is commonly used by X users for generating images that bear its watermark. It is thus likely that this photo was created using Grok AI.
Reverse searching the viral photo, we found a Facebook post dated December 28, 2024. It contained the viral photo, along with other similar photos of trains running in the snowy landscape. The caption stated that these photos were AI-generated.
We also ran the viral photo through various AI detection tools such as Hive Moderation and Is it AI. Their results also stated that there was substantial evidence of generative AI being used to create the photo.
