A 21-year-old from Ukraine has discovered her picture has been taken and duplicated utilizing synthetic intelligence (AI) to create an alter-ego on Chinese language social media networks.
Olga Loiek, a College of Pennsylvania pupil, launched a YouTube channel in November final yr to share her way of life and experiences. She was trying to construct an viewers for her content material, however issues have taken an sudden flip.
It has emerged her picture has been lifted and processed by AI applications to create a sequence of personas, like “Natasha” who seems to be a Russian girl, fluent in Mandarin, who desires to specific her gratitude for Chinese language assist of Russia and to supply some merchandise on the market on the aspect to earn some cash.
Loiek’s content material is progressing properly along with her channel having slightly below 18,000 subscribers on the time of writing, however in what’s a probable sense of frustration, the faux Chinese language accounts have tons of of hundreds of followers in some circumstances.
Issues I might by no means say
“That is actually like my face talking Mandarin and, within the background, I’m seeing the Kremlin and Moscow, and I’m speaking about how nice Russia and China are,” mentioned Loiek. “
“That was actually creepy, as a result of these are issues I might by no means say in life,” she added.
There’s a deeper context to this story of deception by AI and that’s geopolitics.
Accounts, photographs, and avatars just like the considered one of ‘Natasha’ play off the shut political relationship between Russia and China, with the previous nonetheless at struggle with Ukraine following the invasion in February 2022.
At face worth, Chinese language social media is frequented by Russian ladies who need to present their heat and respect towards China, helped by the flexibility to fluently communicate the language. They’re additionally trying to assist the struggle effort by promoting imported merchandise from their nation however it’s all a mirage.
That is AI at work, duplicating photographs and making the most of real-world conditions to affect and mislead unsuspecting folks. Usually the movies and the merchandise will probably be focused at single Chinese language males to evoke a response and to promote.
Among the accounts seem to have bought tens of hundreds of {dollars} price of merchandise, together with candies, whereas others even carry a disclaimer, stating AI could have been used to create the avatars.
That is one other instance of how AI stays a potent software for propagating disinformation and an issue for governments and tech firms proper now, not sooner or later.
Featured picture through Ideogram
