A YOUTUBER was horrified when she discovered her AI clone begging for a Chinese husband and promising to do household chores on the internet.
Olga Loyek, from Ukraine, stumbled upon a series of “very offensive” videos where the clone posed as a Chinese-speaking Russian woman on the hunt for a partner.
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The 20-year-old only found out about the clips from loyal YouTube subscribers who contacted her after they saw them on Chinese social media platforms.
During her search, Olga found AI-generated images of herself posing as a Russian woman who speaks Chinese, loves China and wants to marry a Chinese man.
Shockingly in one of the videos the clone says: “If you marry Russian women, we will wash clothes, cook, and wash dishes for you every day.”
It added: “We will also give you foreign babies, as many as you want.”
And upon further investigation the perplexed youngster found she was plastered all over the internet appearing not just as one clone character but in three different versions.
She was either Natasha, Anna, or Grace depending on which platform.
She also always appeared to speak Mandarin and was consistently passionate about China.
Olga told VOA: “I started translating these videos using Google Translate and most of these accounts were talking about China, Russia, and how great the relationship between China and Russia is.”
She added: “It was very offensive. “
In some of these clips, the clones will seek to sell Russian goods to China while in others they promote Russia and China’s national ties.
Many of them spent time praising Chinese history and culture or talking about how Russian men want to marry Chinese women.
Olga studies science at the University of Pennsylvania and recently started a YouTube channel.
On the channel she talks about mental health and shares her philosophical views on life with her followers.
But, soon after she launched it the alarm was raised by her followers who spotted the unusual videos popping up all over the internet.
The avatar has nothing to do with Olga herself.
Instead, it’s an AI-generated clone based on her image and used without her consent.
Olga explained how as a Ukrainian woman living in the current climate where Russian has been at war with Ukraine for two years the experience has been even more “violating.”
“This is probably used to make people in China feel that foreigners feel that their country is superior,” she said.
When Olga and her followers complained to Chinese social media sites, such as HeyGen and Douyin, some of the videos were taken down.
But this problem seems far wider than just Olga as it appears there’s a lack of provision to prevent AI using people’s images.
A recent study shows that AI faces are more convincing than real ones.
The study, published in the Psychological Science journal, found that because AI algorithms are typically trained on white faces – it is far better at recreating them.
Dr Amy Dawel, senior author of the paper conducted by experts at The Australian National University (ANU), said: “If White AI faces are consistently perceived as more realistic, this technology could have serious implications for people of colour by ultimately reinforcing racial biases online.
“This problem is already apparent in current AI technologies that are being used to create professional-looking headshots.
“When used for people of colour, the AI is altering their skin and eye colour to those of White people.”
AI’s ability to create hyper-realistic copycat images of humans means people can no longer rely on physical cues to tell what’s real and what’s fake.
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