Name: Can Congress Stop Celebrity Deepfakes on Social Media?
Uploaded: 2023-11-10T19:52:00Z
Duration: 6 min 11 s
Description: A growing number of celebrities like Tom Hanks and Gayle King say scammers are using AI deepfakes of their likeness to hawk sketchy items on social media. Wall Street Journal reporter Patrick Coffee joins Julie Chang to discuss how some politicians are taking on the issue. Danny Lewis hosts. Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/Associated Press

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A growing number of celebrities like Tom Hanks and Gayle King say scammers are using AI deepfakes of their likeness to hawk sketchy items on social media. Wall Street Journal reporter Patrick Coffee joins Julie Chang to discuss how some politicians are taking on the issue. Danny Lewis hosts. Photo:  Evan Agostini/Invision/Associated Press

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Can Congress Stop Celebrity Deepfakes on Social Media?

Danny: Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Friday, November 10th. I'm Danny Lewis for The Wall Street Journal. Back in October, the YouTube star known as MrBeast posted a video to Twitter and it seemed to show him offering viewers a really good deal on the latest iPhone.

If you're watching this video, you're one of the 10,000 lucky people who'll get an iPhone 15 Pro for just $2.

Danny: Except, the ad was fake. MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, was warning his fans about an AI-generated video impersonating him to scam unsuspecting people, better known as a deepfake. Now, Congress is considering laws to make it easier for deepfake victims to seek legal action against the people behind these scam ads. My colleague Julie Chang spoke to WSJ reporter Patrick Coffee about how this might work.

Julie: Patrick, start us off by telling us about these deepfake scams. How do they work?

Patrick: Essentially, it's just a way to try to convince people to give up their credit card information. And the way that it's done is there's a video created of a very well-known celebrity that appears to be endorsing or hawking this product or service. And whoever's responsible for creating these videos then place paid ads on some of the most popular social networks, particularly short-form video networks. And at a certain point, the exposure gets so great that at least some people will fall for the scam. In most cases, there is no legitimate business behind this. There is no product or service. It's something that sounds like it almost could be real, but ultimately, there's nothing. It's just an attempt to get your credit card number or other financial information so that they can drain your bank account.

Julie: And who were some of the celebrities up in arms about this?

Patrick: Just in the last month, there were three major celebrities who sort of simultaneously raised awareness about it. It was MrBeast, the YouTube star, Tom Hanks, the movie star, and Gayle King, the CBS anchor. And there were also apparently some BBC presenters who had this happen to them as well. And they all went on their own social media accounts and essentially warned people don't fall for this. And in the case of Hanks and King, their friends kept sending them these links and saying like, "Hey, this isn't you, right?" So they felt the need to actually post about it publicly. It's really impossible to know whether the incidents of these kinds of scam has actually increased, but we definitely see more awareness of it and we see more celebrities commenting on it publicly.

Julie: What have the video platforms that host some of these scams said about this problem?

Patrick: I reached out to Meta and TikTok, and both of them said the vast majority of this sort of content gets caught by their automated filters, either as it goes live or even before it goes live. However, it's pretty obvious just by the number of celebrities that are talking about this that their filters are not perfect and they kind of acknowledge this and that some slip through and then they have to do manual review. And it's almost an impossibility to catch every single scam, particularly as we understand it, the organizations behind these tend to just disappear when they get caught, and then they can just move on to their next target.

Julie: So what is being done about these deepfake scams at the moment?

Patrick: Yeah, I mean, you have all the platforms saying that they're updating their policies and it's sort of a constant evolution. And then there are members of Congress who are attempting to update existing law so that it's more efficient at containing this phenomenon. And for many decades, people have, especially celebrities, have relied on existing law in order to counter this kind of behavior. But it's a lot easier to do when it's sort of a household name brand that's using your voice or whatever without your permission as opposed to these nameless companies creating these deepfake scams that can kind of be from anywhere. It's very difficult to even figure out if they're legitimate operations, much less where they are or you know, who would be the right person to go after.

Julie: In your reporting, you also discovered that it wasn't just celebrities, but individuals being affected by this. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Patrick: That's right. It's much less reported and much less frequent, but there's the possibility now that because AI technology is so easily accessible that really anyone who has a photo of their face or a brief video or audio recording of their voice could technically be targeted in the same way that Tom Hanks was. I spoke to Senator Chris Coons, who is one of the sponsors of a new bill in the Senate, and the way he put it to me was think about a local celebrity. If you happen to be the local football coach or the head of the PTA, people could just very easily create a video of you appearing to say something or do something or endorse something that you haven't actually done. And it's gonna be a real challenge for the people and the communities in question to respond to these things when they do happen.

Julie: All right, that was our reporter, Patrick Coffee.

Danny: And that's it for Tech News Briefing. Today's show was produced by Anthony Banse. I'm your host Danny Lewis in for Julie Chang. Our supervising producer is Melanie Roy. Our development producer is Aisha Al-Muslim. Our deputy editors are Scott Salaway and Chris Zinsley and Felana Patterson is The Wall Street Journal's head of news audio. We'll be back with a new show on Monday morning. Thanks for listening.

WSJ’s tech podcast featuring breaking news, scoops and tips on tech innovations and policy debates, plus exclusive interviews with movers and shakers in the industry.