Lawyer: Experts say videos allegedly featuring Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan show signs of AI manipulation

International forensic experts have concluded that intimate videos allegedly featuring Archbishop Arshak Khachatryan bear technical indicators of artificial intelligence-assisted manipulation and were unlikely to have occurred in “objective reality”, the cleric’s lawyer says.

At a press conference on Friday, attorney Arsen Babayan said experts commissioned in Montenegro were asked whether the images and audio events depicted in the recordings had existed in objective reality. In their conclusion, the experts stated that “technical indicators show that the files are processed derivatives and do not constitute original recordings of objective reality.”

The report cited multiple factors indicating algorithmic production and/or reconstruction of the material, describing the audiovisual events as “constructed, manipulated digital content.”

According to Babayan, experts were also asked whether the footage could have been created using artificial intelligence or specialized video-generation software. The response stated that technical findings contradict claims that the recordings were not AI-generated, pointing to software export characteristics, temporal reconstruction markers, reuse patterns, residual stabilization artifacts and fixed-frame composition as indicators of professional editing or AI-assisted synthesis.

The experts further noted that the audio stream was not synchronized with the video and showed signs of post-production temporal manipulation, along with other editing traces. They said it was not possible to identify the individuals appearing in the footage.

Separate examinations conducted in Serbia and Russia reached similar conclusions, Babayan said, with additional reports pending from two other countries.

A Serbian expert report stated that analysis of the MP4 files and available metadata provided grounds to assert that the depicted images and audiovisual events “did not exist in objective reality.” While metadata indicated encoding in an Apple iOS environment (“Core Media Audio/Video”), the report said this did not prove how the content was originally created and that there were sufficient grounds to conclude the materials were artificially created or altered using specialized software, including AI-based tools.

A Russian expert assessment said there were “weighty scientific and technical grounds” to conclude the events shown did not occur in objective reality as presented. It cited diffusion smoothing artifacts, non-physical object motion, a 640×512 resolution inconsistent with typical smartphone standards, and the absence of natural sensor noise as indicators of artificial origin.