Olga Loiek, Ukrainian Girl’s AI-Generated Pro-Russia Content in Mandarin Goes Viral on Chinese Platforms; Girl Responds 

A Ukrainian girl, Olga Loiek, discovered her AI-generated videos all over the internet speaking Mandarin and advocating for Russia, being China’s bonhomie and promoting Russian products.

Olga Loiek received truckloads of texts from people who witnessed her uttering Mandarin in the videos posted on Chinese social media. Notably, this incident came soon after she posted clips on her YouTube channel in 2023.

Olga examined the matter and discovered that multiple accounts were created with her face but different names. Profiles were indeed created with generative AI with different identities, such as April, Natasha, Sofia, and Stacy.

In frustration, Olga stated how she felt being the victim of mass identity theft.

She said, “I don’t want anyone to think that I ever said these horrible things in my life. Using a Ukrainian girl’s face to promote Russia. It’s crazy.”

Notably, the majority of the accounts were discovered on the Chinese platforms Bilibili and Xiaohongshu. These are the Chinese alternatives to YouTube and Instagram.

Olga added, “I saw like 90% of the videos were talking about China and Russia, the China-Russia friendship, that we have to be strong allies, as well as advertisements for food.”

Olga claims that HeyGen is the corporation behind developing the AI tool that reacted to her fiancé’s tweet, unveiling that “over 4.9K videos were generated using her face and said that they blocked her image from being used anymore.”

Stance on Fake AI-Generated Videos in China 

Angela Zhang from the University of Hong Kong explains the query about how these AI-generated fake videos were on the platform for so long. Angela added that it’s a common practice in China.

Times Now reported that over 515 individuals were apprehended by the authorities for such “AI face swap activities.” However, authorities took action quite late this time, maybe due to the pro-China content of the videos.

A law and technology researcher from the University of Bologna and KU Leuven, Emmie Hine, stated in this regard, “It is unclear whether these accounts were coordinated under a collective purpose, but promoting a message that is in line with the government’s propaganda definitely benefits them.”

Notably, the majority of the videos featuring the Ukrainian girl have been removed from the platform. In the wake of this, Olga advises her internet family to be cautious.

She concludes, “I wanted to share my story; I wanted to make sure that people would understand that not everything that you’re seeing online is real.”

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