Earlier this year, 20-year-old Ukrainian influencer Olga Loiek came face to face with an army of artificial intelligence-generated clones of herself online — and they were all speaking Chinese.
“I was really creeped out. I saw my face saying something in a different language. Then when I went and translated it, this was all stuff I would never say in my life,” she told the Financial Times, adding that the deepfake character spoke about “strengthening the relationship between Russia and China”.
Loiek, who was alerted to the videos by some of her 20,000 followers on YouTube and Instagram, said she is unaware of the motive behind the cloning but suspects her likeness could have been used as part of a disinformation campaign. The videos spread across Chinese social media sites Xiaohongshu, which translates to “little red book”, and Bilibili, with one fake account attracting 300,000 followers.