A Series of Public Figures Who Became Victims of Deep Fake, from Sri Mulyani to Brad Pitt

Kapanlagi.com - The sophistication of technology comes with a series of consequences, one of which is the development of discourse manipulation. A number of public figures have been observed to become victims of this discourse manipulation. Starting from Sri Mulyani to Brad Pitt. Here are the details.

Read other news about Deep Fake at Liputan6.com.

1. Provoking Public Emotion

Recently, Sri Mulyani has been in the spotlight due to her controversial statement. In a circulating video, Sri Mulyani appears to question whether all funding for the teaching profession should be borne by the state, or if it could involve community participation.

As a result of that video, Sri Mulyani faced a lot of backlash to the point where she had to disable the comment section on her Instagram. The discourse developed further, and other statements from Sri Mulyani that provoked public anger began to circulate.

2. It Turns Out to Be a Hoax

© instagram.com/smindrawati

Sri Mulyani finally stated that the video about her mentioning the teaching profession is a hoax. "The video that is widely circulated is a hoax, a result of deep fake," she revealed on her Instagram account recently.

"In fact, I have never stated that teachers are a burden to the state," she added.

"The video is a result of deepfake and an incomplete clip of my speech at the Indonesian Science, Technology, and Industry Convention Forum at ITB on August 7," Sri Mulyani explained further.

3. What is Deep Fake?

Quoted from techtarget.com, deep fake technology is a type of artificial intelligence used to create convincing fake images, videos, and audio recordings.

Deepfakes often alter existing source content by replacing one person with another. They can also create entirely original content where someone is depicted doing or saying something that they never actually did or said.

4. Najwa Shihab Victim of Promotion Fraud

© instagram.com/najwashihab

Related to deep fake, Najwa Shihab has also been a victim. In that edited video, she promotes an online gambling site that claims to provide millions of rupiah in income.

Apparently, the video was taken from a post on Najwa Shihab's YouTube channel on December 10, 2017, titled Catatan Najwa, Merawat Ingatan. In the original video, Najwa was actually discussing human rights violations that had been committed by authorities in Indonesia.

5. Melaney Ricardo and Slimming Products

© instagram.com/melaney_ricardo

Melaney Ricardo also fell victim. She became a victim of an AI-edited video for the purpose of promoting a slimming product. In the video, she appears to recommend the slimming product she used.

Melaney initially had no idea about the video until fellow artist friends contacted her and asked about it.

"So that’s a podcast video. It’s like we’re shooting like this but the mouth is filled with AI. Then finally, Ms. Titi (Titi DJ) contacted me, and then Bang Andre (Taulany). Bang Andre seems to have been fooled, yes. I mean, he thought it was really me," she revealed as quoted by the TRANS TV YouTube channel, Saturday (27/1/2024).

"Then my brother who wants to get married also said that if this works, he wants to consume it. Then I finally saw because I don’t use Facebook, right? That’s where the most scams are (on Facebook)," she added.

Melaney eventually realized how many people were deceived by the video. She then requested for the video to be taken down.

"I told them it needs to be taken down. Then I also made a clarification on TikTok and the viewers were quite high, meaning it’s not just about the viewers, but so that people know that it’s not me," she concluded.

6. Brad Pitt and a Woman Who Was Deceived

© TPG Images

Next, still in the realm of deep fakes, there is a 53-year-old French woman named Anne who experienced an online scam that resulted in a loss of about €830,000 (around IDR 13.8 billion) after getting trapped in a fake relationship with someone pretending to be the famous actor Brad Pitt.

She received a message from someone claiming to be Brad Pitt's mother, Jane Etta Pitt, who said that her son needed a woman like her. After that, Anne began communicating with the person claiming to be Brad Pitt through various platforms, including WhatsApp.

The scammer used artificial intelligence (AI) technology to edit photos of Brad Pitt and sent fake images that looked convincing. The scammer even made the photos appear as if they were taken specifically for Anne.

Anne was initially skeptical but eventually melted with the romantic messages and poems sent by the scammer. She believed that Brad Pitt was experiencing health issues and needed money for his kidney treatment because his bank account was frozen due to the divorce process with Angelina Jolie.

Anne regularly transferred large sums of money to the scammer through an account in Turkey, totaling around $850,000. Because of the scam, Anne is now homeless and living with a friend. She still has about $41,000 in savings.

(kpl/tdr)