Posts praising Thailand prime minister’s multilingualism use AI-altered video
- Published on February 16, 2026 at 05:37
- 3 min read
- By Chayanit ITTHIPONGMAETEE, Sammy HEUNG, AFP Thailand, AFP Hong Kong
After conservative Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul claimed victory in Thailand's February 8 general election, an AI-altered video was shared in posts falsely claiming it showed him speaking to the media in fluent Chinese. While Anutin can speak Chinese, the original footage shows Anutin had spoken to reporters in Thai only. An analysis of the video's audio also indicated it was "very likely" generated using AI.
"He stutters in Thai, but he's fluent in English and Chinese, amazing!" reads the Thai-language caption of an X video shared on February 12, 2026.
The video appears to show Anutin saying to reporters in Mandarin about the country's border clashes with Cambodia, which have killed scores of people and displaced around a million on both sides.
The video was shared after Thailand's February 8 general election, where Anutin’s conservative Bhumjaithai Party surged to a stunning victory on a wave of nationalism, with a border conflict with Cambodia top of mind for voters (archived link).
"He can speak Chinese, but people never get to see it because he rarely has a chance to use it," reads a comment on one of the posts.
"His diverse abilities are impressive -- music, languages," another reads. "He might not be great at debating, but he managed to lead his company through the 1997 financial crisis. That's no small feat, right?"
Anutin had become prime minister in September 2025 after his predecessor and former coalition partner Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of Thaksin, was ousted by court order.
Despite the victory, the Bhumjaithai Party still needed to strike a coalition deal with jailed ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra's Pheu Thai party (archived link).
The same video had also previously spread in similar Facebook and TikTok posts in December 2025 that praised Anutin's ability to speak Chinese.
Anutin is of Thai-Chinese descent and there are videos of him speaking in Chinese, but the footage circulating on social media has been doctored (archived here and here).
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led AFP to similar footage published on a Chinese news portal on December 13, 2025 that shows Anutin was in fact speaking in Thai (archived link).
Thai broadcaster Amarin TV's logo is visible in the video's top-right corner, and a subsequent keyword search found it had also been published on the broadcaster's YouTube channel on December 13, 2025 (archived link).
Anutin says: "Thailand must act to fully safeguard its sovereignty and its people. Cambodia launched heavy fire this morning, and they are now firing into areas that are not military targets."
Anutin was speaking about renewed clashes between Thailand and Cambodia along their disputed 800-kilometre border (archived link).
Anutin said Thailand would "continue to perform military actions until we feel no more harm and threats to our land and people," following a phone call with US President Donald Trump (archived link).
The countries eventually agreed to a truce on December 27, 2025 (archived link).
A closer look at the circulating video shows Anutin's purported remarks do not sync with the movement of his lips.
An analysis of the audio in the doctored video using the voice cloning detection tool Hiya, available in the Verification Plugin, found it is "very likely AI-generated".
AFP has previously debunked other misinformation related to the polls in Thailand and offers an online course on tackling election misinformation.
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