Viral Putin, Modi and Xi selfie at BRICS summit is AI-generated

A viral selfie allegedly showing Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi and other leaders together at the BRICS summit in New Delhi is AI-generated. A SynthID watermark shows it was created using OpenAI tools, while several leaders pictured, including Brazil’s Lula and Turkey’s Erdogan, did not attend. Another AI selfie features former Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, who died in 2024. Both images were widely shared online, including by official embassy accounts. Vedika Bahl fact-checks. The BRICS 2026 summit in New Delhi brought together leaders from some of the world’s major emerging economies, as the bloc pushes for a greater role in global affairs. But amid the official summit images, two unofficial selfies have gone viral, falsely portraying world leaders together and fuelling claims of BRICS unity. Russia’s embassy in South Africa shared the photo with the message “BRICS is a superpower”, with the post receiving millions of views. Official Iranian embassy accounts in India and Armenia also shared the image. One of the selfies appears to show Russian President Vladimir Putin taking a selfie alongside the BRICS world leaders: Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minist...