In a bizarre and viral twist to India’s AI adoption journey, a video circulating online has shocked netizens and raised serious questions about public accountability. A local contractor allegedly used ChatGPT and an AI image editor to create a fake photo of a completed cement road — and successfully got the bill cleared by a government engineer.
The now-viral clip opens with a dusty, unpaved road in a rural village. Instead of beginning construction, the contractor captures a photo of the site and inputs it into an AI tool with the prompt: “Convert this into a fully paved cement road.” In seconds, the image is transformed, now showing what appears to be a pristine RCC road with lane markings, side drains, and a smooth concrete finish.
He then forwards the AI-generated image via WhatsApp to a government engineer. The response? “Bahut accha kaam kia, bill laga do” (Great work, submit the bill). According to the video, no construction was ever actually carried out.
The video, first posted on Instagram by the page @naughtyworld, has since gone viral, accumulating millions of views and eliciting a range of reactions, from disbelief to satire. Some viewers applauded the “jugaadu genius” of the act, while others called it a dangerous misuse of technology.
“This guy fooled the engineer with pixels, not pavement,” joked one user.
“AI is the new corruption toolkit,” said another.
But the situation also reflects a deeper concern. While urban India explores the creative and productive uses of AI, such incidents highlight how these tools can be weaponized in areas with poor oversight. For citizens waiting years for basic infrastructure, the idea that a road could be “approved” using a doctored image adds insult to injury.
Whether the video is entirely real or staged, it has struck a nerve, exposing the cracks in systems where verification is weak, and where technology, instead of being a tool for development, becomes an accomplice in deception.
As India races to become a digital powerhouse, the episode raises a pressing question: Will AI help build better futures, or simply offer smarter ways to cheat the system?
Watch the viral video here:
👉 “Contractor Uses AI to Fake Road Construction”
Watch on Instagram
