In a troubling development, high-profile personalities including the world's most popular YouTuber, MrBeast, and BBC presenters Matthew Amroliwala and Sally Bundock have become the latest targets of deepfake scams.
Using artificial intelligence (AI) to manipulate facial and bodily features, the fraudulent videos have been appearing on various social media platforms.
One video circulated on TikTok purported to show MrBeast offering new iPhones for a mere US$2.
Simultaneously, videos featuring manipulated images of Amroliwala and Bundock were used to falsely introduce Elon Musk endorsing an investment opportunity.
Lots of people are getting this deepfake scam ad of me… are social media platforms ready to handle the rise of AI deepfakes? This is a serious problem pic.twitter.com/llkhxswQSw
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) October 3, 2023
Taken down
Upon being alerted, Meta, the company that owns Facebook, promptly took down the deceptive content.
A Meta spokesperson said, "We don't allow this kind of content on our platforms and have removed it." TikTok also acted swiftly, deleting the MrBeast video within hours of its upload.
The account responsible for posting the video was removed for policy violation.
What is Deepfake?
Deepfake is a portmanteau of "deep learning" and "fake," and refers to a form of AI used to create hyper-realistic videos or audio recordings.
This technology manipulates existing content to superimpose faces, alter facial expressions, or even synthesise speech, effectively making it appear as though individuals are saying or doing things they never actually did.
Deep learning algorithms, a subset of AI, serve as the backbone of this technology. They analyse a vast array of facial expressions, voice modulations, and other biometric data from target individuals. This information is then used to seamlessly graft the target's likeness onto another body in a different video or manipulate their facial and vocal expressions.