India, June 9 -- A viral video that appeared to show a lion sniffing a man asleep on a footpath has captured millions of views across social media, sparking shock, admiration, and humour. But experts have now confirmed: the clip is AI-generated.

The footage shows a large lion calmly approaching a man sleeping outside a shuttered shop, sniffing him, and walking away without harm. Its seemingly real-life danger and the man's unflinching calm drew widespread attention.

One widely circulated post warned, "This video showing a lion sniffing human has around 7 million views. This is AI-generated video. Imagine how AI can be used to confuse people. And now imagine AI is still at nascent stage!!"

Fact-checkers and visual experts later debunked...