Chinese AI turns Ukrainian YouTuber into Mandarin speaking Russian

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 scholar, launched a YouTube channel in November final yr to share her way of life and experiences. She was seeking to construct an viewers for her content material, however issues have taken an sudden flip.

It has emerged her image has been lifted and processed via AI applications to create a collection 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 facet to earn some cash.

Loiek’s content material is progressing nicely together with her channel having just below 18,000 subscribers on the time of writing, however in what’s a possible sense of frustration, the faux Chinese language accounts have a whole bunch of 1000’s of followers in some circumstances.

Issues I’d 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’d by no means say in life,” she added.

There’s a deeper context to this story of deception via AI and that’s geopolitics.

Accounts, pictures, and avatars just like the one among ‘Natasha’ play off the shut political relationship between Russia and China, with the previous nonetheless at conflict with Ukraine following the invasion in February 2022.

At face worth, Chinese language social media is frequented by Russian girls who need to present their heat and respect towards China, helped by the flexibility to fluently converse the language. They’re additionally seeking to assist the conflict effort by promoting imported merchandise from their nation however it’s all a mirage.

That is AI at work, duplicating pictures and profiting from real-world conditions to affect and mislead unsuspecting individuals. 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 offered tens of 1000’s of {dollars} value of merchandise, together with candies, whereas others even carry a disclaimer, stating AI might have been used to create the avatars.

That is one other instance of how AI stays a potent tool for propagating disinformation and an issue for governments and tech corporations proper now, not sooner or later.

Featured picture through Ideogram