Inside the AI Ground War Against Celebrity Deepfakes

Available to WrapPRO members

“Digital bodyguard” firm Loti offers a glimpse into the daily battle to fight AI-generated content that misappropriates famous identities

031325 Brad Pitt Deep Fake
(Christopher Smith for TheWrap)

In January, a French woman lost $900,000 after falling victim to scammers posing as Brad Pitt who convinced her to send money for medical treatments. The elaborate scheme, which lasted over a year, featured artificial intelligence-generated photos showing the actor in a hospital bed, supposedly battling kidney cancer. Pittโ€™s representatives later issued a statement expressing dismay that โ€œscammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities.โ€

These scams can also work at scale. This month, investigators uncovered an operation out of Tbilisi, Georgia, that used deepfakes and fabricated news reports to promote cryptocurrency schemes featuring well-known British personalities, including financial expert Martin Lewis, radio DJ Zoe Ball, and adventurer Ben Fogle.

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