Generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology used YouTube video of a Ukrainian Olga Loiek to create dozens of fake accounts and pro-Russian propaganda.
AI turned a Ukrainian YouTube blogger into a Russian propagandist
21-year-old student Olga Loiek started running a YouTube channel on psychology in 2023.
In a few months, channel subscribers informed the girl that they had seen her videos on Chinese social networks.
Olga found dozens of fake accounts in the Chinese social networks Xiaohongshu and Bilibili, where her images was used.
I saw my face and heard my voice. It was very scary, because I saw myself saying something that I had never said," Olga, who studies at the University of Pennsylvania, told the BBC.
In fake videos, Olga talked about the friendship between Russia and China
The fake accounts using content from Olga's YouTube channel had different female names.
In the fake videos, Olga spoke Mandarin, which she never learned.
The girl translated fake videos with her image using online services.
It turned out that in these videos, created with the help of generative artificial intelligence, she talked about the friendship between Russia and China.
"I saw that 90% of the videos talk about the friendship between China and Russia. That they should be strong allies. I don't want anyone to think that I have ever said these horrible things in my life. To use a Ukrainian girl as a face promoting Russia. This is madness," said Olga.
4900 videos were created using Olga's image
Olga's fiance investigated and discovered that 4,900 videos were created using her face.
The couple turned to HeyGen, a company that developed generative AI technology.
The company's representatives assured that they blocked Olga's image from further use.
Chinese state media repeats Russian narratives, justifying its invasion of Ukraine, and social networks censor discussion of the war, the BBC writes.
Generative AI is a new technology that has appeared relatively recently. It is an artificial intelligence that can independently find and process information, as well as use data to create content that did not exist before.
