Nepal, Feb. 27 -- Last year, an audio clip of Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) vice-president Swarnim Wagle surfaced on Facebook in which the potential future finance minister appeared to be having a private conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about Nepal-India border issues.

The clip racked up 1.5 million views. It jumped through Viber family groups without caption or context, the way political gossip always does in Nepal. By the time Wagle walked into the Cyber Bureau office in Bhotahiti to file a complaint and confirm the audio was fabricated using AI, the clip had already done what it was designed to do.

This is the problem with fake AI videos - the damage is not in the content, but the damage is in the lag between ...