KARACHI: Former Pakistani fast bowler Wasim Akram is alright. He’s alive, he’s at the gym, and his wife has proven it all after a video tricked almost half of the internet into thinking that he had died from a heart attack. It all began with an AI-generated video meant to mimic Shoaib Akhtar. In it, a fabricated version of Akhtar tells viewers Akram has passed away. It isn’t real. Akhtar never said it. But the video moved fast, and by the time most fans saw it, the damage was already spreading shares, screenshots, panicked messages between friends checking if it was true.
Wasim Akram Death Hoax
Shaniera Akram didn’t wait long to respond. She posted a new video on Instagram showing her husband mid-workout pull-ups, pressing exercises, the whole routine then looking straight at the camera. Her caption cut straight to the point: the death claims were false, and here’s the proof.
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It worked. Comments filled up within minutes, fans relieved, some furious at whoever built the fake clip in the first place. A few pointed out something bigger than just one hoax: how easy it’s gotten to fabricate a public figure’s voice and face convincingly enough that people believe it before checking anything.
AI Death Hoaxes
Akram isn’t the first. Over the past year, AI-generated death hoaxes have hit actors, politicians, athletes anyone with enough public recognition to make a fake announcement feel plausible. The tools got better. The skepticism hasn’t caught up at the same pace.
For Akram specifically, the timing made the hoax land harder. He’s not some minor name people can shrug off he’s the “Sultan of Swing,” a central figure in Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup win, still active in coaching and commentary decades after retiring. A death claim about someone at that level of recognition spreads faster and hits harder than one about someone less known.
Shaniera’s video ended the story within hours. But that didn’t solve the fundamental problem of there being someone who was able to create an extremely realistic imitation of a person’s deceased friend announcing his death – and having thousands of people believe him without bothering to verify anything.
