AI: Mughal History's Newest Author

September 20, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

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Hello,

AI history channels are reimagining the Mughal era for millions of viewers. But in a country already fighting over monuments and memory, the distortions are telling. Read on!

LEARN WITH BOOM

You know those amazing deals advertised on Facebook and Instagram? Most are likely to be fake! Scammers create fake profiles and post unbelievable offers, like “Rs 10,000 in cashback!”, or “Scratch and Win a motorbike!” to tempt you into clicking the link. 

Once you click on it, it may lead you to a fake website or prompt you to call them and share your personal details to siphon off your money. They'll pretend to be your friend, some famous influencer, or even big brands like Samsung or Flipkart.

Signs of a Scam:

  • Profiles with very few posts or followers.

  • Offers that seem too good to be true (like an iPhone for ₹5,000).

  • Creating a sense of urgency by saying, "Send money now or miss this chance!"

  • Web addresses with mistakes (like "flipkart.co.in" instead of "flipkart.com") or “mcx12.flipkart.in”.

  • Fake URLs either have too many short forms or typos, or they end in .tk, .ml, .xyz instead of .com or .in.

  • No HTTPS security lock in the address bar.

What to Do:

  • Always check if the profile looks genuine before trusting. Read its reviews on Google. 

  • Check the URL to see if it matches the domain name of official websites like ‘Amazon.in’ or ‘Flipkart.com’. 

  • Don't share personal information like phone number, address, or Aadhaar at any point.

  • Check for a trusted payment system, like Razorpay or Paytm.

  • Report and block any suspicious accounts immediately.

  • Look for the green lock before clicking anything!

DECODE

India’s Mughal History Is Being Rewritten As AI Fantasies

​​In an Instagram reel, Jahan Ara, daughter of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, is lying next to her father on a bed strewn with rose petals. The scene hints at an incestuous relationship that no historical record supports. 

The disturbing clip, entirely generated by artificial intelligence, was uploaded by the account History Labs, which has more than 64,000 subscribers on YouTube and is monetised on the platform. 

For millions who encounter these AI-generated videos in a casual scroll, they appear less like fiction and more like historical evidence. 

Politics in AI ‘Entertainment’: Historians say these distortions are not just careless — they are political. “It’s not surprising that Mughals are being shown negatively in the current climate,” Shireen Moosvi, a historian who specialises in Mughal history, told Sumaiya Ali. She pointed to AI depictions of Shah Jahan with a Hindu tilak on his forehead — a detail absent from any historical record.

Sushant Singh Rajput Came Alive As A Meta AI Bot To Seek Justice

A Meta AI chatbot impersonating deceased Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput spread conspiracy theories about his death, urging users to "seek justice" for the star who died by suicide in 2020. 

The chatbot looked harmless at first glance. It carried Rajput’s smiling photo and a “parody” label. But the unease began to set in soon after the first chat. 

Adrija Bose and Karen Rebelo spent hours chatting with it, but it didn’t take long to grasp how dangerous it was. Within moments, the bot begins dismantling the official cause of death—suicide—and replacing it with a web of conspiracies that have occupied social media users for more than five years. 

This wasn’t a novelty account. It was an automated disinformation engine. 

Following Decode’s inquiry, Meta responded: “The AIs in question were created by users and violated our Meta AI Studio Policy, resulting in their removal from the platform. We’re continuously learning and improving our products and refining our approach to enforcing our policies as we adapt to new technology.”

In line with that statement, the Sushant Singh Rajput chatbot has been removed from Meta AI Studio.

EXPLAINED

Google’s Nano Banana Editor Makes Political Disinformation Effortless

With Google’s new Nano Banana editor, you can drape yourself in a vintage saree, turn into a pocket-sized 3D figurine, or even hug your younger self. The same too can also convert an Indian politician’s saree into hijab, or conjure George Soros into photos of political leaders. 

In India’s hyper-polarised social feeds, that shift from fun to dangerous disinformation takes a single prompt. 

To test the real-world risk, we used existing Indian disinformation tropes and asked the editor to recreate them. Each edit was executed cleanly, without warnings or blocks.

❝

I think the potential risk is very high because these tools are capable of generating highly realistic photos and can be used to mislead viewers.

Siwei Lyu, SUNY Empire Innovation Professor and Director of the Media Forensic Lab at the University at Buffalo told BOOM’s Archis Chowdhury over email
'FAKE NEWS’ YOU ALMOST FELL FOR

🔍  A photo of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former ICC Chairman Sharad Pawar greeting the Pakistan men’s cricket team ahead of the 2011 World Cup semi-final in Mohali was shared on social media with the misleading claim that it was taken soon after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. Read 🔗 Anmol Alphonso’s ↗️ fact-check.

🔍  "Ricky Ponting on Sky Sports: This match will be remembered forever with India as the big loser. The way the Pakistani team wanted to shake hands at the end has immortalised them as champions of the gentleman's game with India as the perpetual sore loser." Did he really say this? 🔗 Anmol Alphonso ↗️  tells you the truth.

🔍 A video of people gathered on a street chanting 'Narendra Modi Zindabad' was shared online with the false claim that it shows people in Nepal voicing support for the Indian prime minister. 🔗 Srijit Das ↗️ debunked the claim.

🅱️ RECOMMENDS

This week's recommendation is: How to Spot a Lie: It’s All in the Choice of Words, Science Says

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Verified By Boom is written by Divya Chandra, edited by Adrija Bose and designed by H Shiva Roy Chowdhury.

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