Sora AI Videos Mislead Nepali Users as Deepfakes Go Viral on TikTok

Kathmandu: Sunday’s World Cup T20 Qualifier match at the Al Emirates Cricket Ground in Oman was intense. Nepal clinched a sensational 1-run victory by restricting the UAE to 139 runs while chasing a target of 140. Before the excitement of that win even settled, a video went viral on TikTok.

In the clip, American boxer Jake Joseph Paul appeared to be cheering for Nepal while wearing the Nepali cricket team jersey. The 9-second video showed him celebrating Nepal’s victory and claiming that Nepal had directly qualified for the World Cup. Uploaded by a TikTok account named TikTune Fusion, the video quickly gained over 382,000 views and 61,000 likes.

Soon after, the same account released another video showing Jake Paul watching Nepal’s match against Qatar and applauding a wicket taken by cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane. That video also went viral, crossing 200,000 views and 22,000 likes.

Many social media users began praising Paul for supporting Nepal. However, none of it was true. These videos were not real, they were created using Artificial Intelligence (AI) through OpenAI’s Sora platform. The watermark of Sora, known for generating realistic videos based on text input, is clearly visible on the clips.

What’s more surprising is that the AI didn’t just animate Jake Paul’s likeness but also showed a “live match score”running in the background. Although the Nepal–UAE and Nepal–Qatar videos showed inconsistent details, they appeared convincing at first glance. Only careful observers could identify that the players’ jerseys, lighting, and scoreboards were artificially rendered.

Adding to the confusion, Jake Paul himself has become a frequent subject of AI-generated content, which made many believe these videos were genuine.

Another misleading video circulating online showed a woman named Laxmi Gurung winning a gold medal in the Olympic “dish and bed making” competition. The video, shared by Kejusbijungbasnet, also bore Sora’s watermark. Despite the fact that no such event exists in the Olympics, thousands congratulated Gurung in the comments. The video received over 1.6 million views, with only a few users realizing it was AI-generated.

These cases show how easily Nepali social media users are being deceived by AI-generated deepfake videos. The Sora app, which has gained global attention after breaking ChatGPT’s records, is currently available only to limited users and not officially in Nepal. Yet, such videos are already creating confusion among the public.

As deepfake clips spread rapidly across TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, it is becoming harder for people to distinguish between reality and fabrication. Experts warn that in a society already struggling with misinformation, AI-generated videos could make the problem even worse.

 

 

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