A character actor whose face you may have seen in some movies or shows had suddenly found himself out of work during the pandemic. To make a few bucks, he took on a gig that sounded a little iffy but hey, he needed the money. He sold his likeness to an AI company. The company promised his likeness would not be used for anything nefarious. Now his face is being used in propaganda churned out by dictatorships. He’s not the only one.
Dan Dewhirst is that actor. He had a small role in the Alien prequel Prometheus and was in the short-lived Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. During the pandemic, he was approached by a London-based AI startup called Synthesia. They proposed an idea. The company would pay him for his likeness so it could be used as an AI-generated avatar for video production. He agreed to what is, essentially, a deepfake.
Just a few years later, Dewhirst would find out that his AI avatar was being used by the Venezuelan government to spread misinformation on behalf of dictator Nicolas Maduro. In videos, the AI Dewhirst can be seen speaking directly to the camera as he dispels rumors that Venezuela’s economy is in shambles. One of the dead giveaways that it’s not him, other than the fact that his head floats on an eerily still torso, is that in the video Dewhirst speaks with an American accent. The real Dewhirst speaks with an English accent.
Synthesia’s stated goal is to create stuff like marketing materials or presentations that could be used within a company. Turns out their protections against misuse are awful, and now Dewhirst and several other actors and models are finding out that their likenesses are being used by, for instance, West African junta leaders to make it seem like they have international support.
Despite Synthesia’s promises that it would moderate the content of the videos produced using its services and make sure it’s being held to the highest ethical standard, an investigation conducted by The Guardian found that it’s actually extremely easy to make political propaganda using AI avatars based on real people.
To test Synthesia’s content moderation system, The Guardian made ts own propaganda videos. They say it was pretty easy. Reporters simply created an audio file claiming that Vice President Kamala Harris rigged the election. Synthesia has since removed the free AI audio service.
The post AI Avatars Are Making Fake News in Venezuela, Say Real People appeared first on VICE.
The post AI Avatars Are Making Fake News in Venezuela, Say Real People appeared first on VICE.
