Typos, AI-generated image mar Modi’s new Seychelles honour

The citation document faced online mockery after fact checker Mohammed Zubair flagged spelling errors and a wrong Latin motto on its seal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s newly minted Seychelles honour has run into an embarrassing controversy after social media users spotted multiple spelling and typographical errors on the award citation and its accompanying seals.

Seychelles President Patrick Herminie conferred the “Guardian of the Blue Horizon” honour on Modi during his state visit to the island nation, with the distinction approved by the Seychelles cabinet only on June 24, just four days before the ceremony, making Modi its first-ever recipient. The honour recognised Modi’s work on environmental conservation, the Blue Economy and support for Small Island Developing States.

However, the citation document quickly became a target of online mockery after fact-checker Mohammed Zubair pointed out that the Latin motto on one seal read “OPUS” instead of the correct “OPVS”, while “Republic” and “Seychelles” were misspelt as “Repubblic” and “Seycheeles” on another seal in the document.

Adding to the embarrassment, OpenAI’s own image verification tool detected a SynthID watermark embedded in the publicly circulated image of the citation, suggesting the certificate image had been generated using AI image-generation tools rather than designed conventionally.

Despite the row over the certificate, Indian officials maintained that Modi was honoured for his “green leadership”, his push for the Blue Economy, climate action and support for Small Island Developing States. Government sources noted this was not Modi’s first such recognition; he was earlier the first recipient of Israel’s Knesset Medal and the inaugural recipient of the Kotler Award for Global Leadership.

The episode unfolded during Seychelles’ Golden Jubilee celebrations marking 50 years of independence, with Herminie noting that the two countries remain committed to a stable, secure and prosperous Indian Ocean region.