Ukrainian YouTuber Olga Loiek noticed AI clones of herself promoting Russian items on Chinese language social media.
In her spare time, 20-year-old Olga Loiek research cognitive science on the College of Pennsylvania, importing movies to YouTube about psychological well being and her views on the world. Not lengthy after her channel started, she began receiving messages from followers saying that they had seen her on social media.
To them, she appeared not as Ukrainian Olga however as a Russian lady who spoke Mandarin and was enthused about China, looking for to marry a Chinese language man. This Russian model of her goes by a number of names, together with Natasha, Anna, or Grace, relying on what platform you see her on.
Nevertheless, this avatar has nothing to do with Olga herself. As a substitute, it’s an AI-generated clone primarily based on her picture and used with out her consent.
AI clones are used to promote items
In a few of these movies, the clones will search to promote Russian items to China, whereas in others, they promote Russia and China’s nationwide ties. Lots of them hung out praising Chinese language historical past and tradition or speaking about how Russian males wish to marry Chinese language ladies and the way she herself needs to marry a Chinese language man.
“When you marry Russian ladies, we’ll wash garments, prepare dinner, and wash dishes for you on daily basis,” one avatar mentioned. “We may even provide you with overseas infants, as many as you need.”
As a Ukrainian lady and within the present local weather the place Russia has been at struggle with Ukraine since 2022, Olga has spoken to broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) about how ‘violating’ the expertise has been.
“I began translating the movies with Google Translate, and I spotted that the majority of those accounts are speaking about issues like China and Russia and the way good the connection between China and Russia is,” she mentioned. “This feels very violating.”
“That is in all probability used to make folks in China really feel that foreigners really feel that their nation is superior.”
When Olga and her followers complained to Chinese language social media websites, similar to HeyGen and Douyin, a number of movies have been taken down. Nevertheless, this problem doesn’t finish there, indicating a broader drawback across the lack of provision to stop folks’s photos from getting used to feed generative AI instruments. With a current examine displaying that AI faces are extra convincing than actual ones, the chance of individuals believing such content material is actual is excessive.
Featured picture: Olga Loiek
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