The largest YouTuber on the globe, MrBeast, as well as two BBC presenters, have been simulated in deepfake videos in order to deceive unsuspecting individuals on the web.
AI is utilized to generate a video of an individual through the manipulation of their facial features or body with deepfakes.
A video emerged on TikTok this week, supposedly from MrBeast, purporting to offer individuals new iPhones for just two dollars (or £1.65).
Meanwhile, images of BBC presenters Matthew Amroliwala and Sally Bundock were used to advertise a well-known scam.
A Facebook video featured Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X (previously Twitter), "presenting" what seemed to be an investment chance.
Previous videos of a similar nature have purported to demonstrate him distributing money and cryptocurrency.
The BBC has reached out to Meta, the proprietor of Facebook, asking for the content to be taken down, however, it has yet to be done.
Rather than being available to everyone, videos carrying false information have been blocked. The pictures in front of them caution potential viewers that they were checked by independent fact-checkers from FullFact, who initially reported the problem.
While a statement from TikTok noted that the undesirable advertisement by MrBeast had been eliminated within a few hours of it being published, they also specified that the account responsible for it had been deactivated due to it breaching their policies.
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TikTok prohibits the use of "synthetic media" that is comprised of a genuine human's likeness either visually or audibly.
In a post on X, which was seen by more than 28 million people, the YouTuber posted the counterfeit video and asked if social media outlets were able to meet the increasing prevalence of deepfakes.
Recently, there have been numerous deepfakes of well-known people, with Tom Hanks expressing caution on Monday concerning an advertisement that appeared to feature him advertising dental insurance, which, in fact, was false.
As AI systems have become more powerful and advanced, worries regarding their capability to generate extremely lifelike virtual depictions of actual people have also grown..
This video is unplayable.
Test: James Clayton from the BBC tested out a deepfake video detector.
In most cases, a red flag that a video might not be legitimate is the fact that it is promising something for free.
Yet the MrBeast movie is intricate.
The YouTuber has earned fame through his generous donations of cars, homes and money - last Halloween, even the trick or treaters were given iPhones - making it easy to understand why people could assume the YouTuber was handing out these products on the internet.
People with sharp eyes and ears will be able to identify the clues that something is wrong.
The scammers have attempted to give the appearance of legitimacy by including MrBeast's name in the bottom-left corner of the video, as well as the blue verification mark seen widely on many social media platforms.
On TikTok, underneath the logo there is an automatic embed of the name of the person who uploaded the video.
The account responsible for posting the video was not officially verified, and has since been deleted.
In the videos presented by BBC presenters, the mistakes are more prominent.
For instance, in the Sally Bundock video, the "presenter" mispronounces 15 as "fif-teen" and says "pro-ject" instead of "project".
She also claims "more than $3bn 'have been' invested in the new project", rather than "was invested".
Although these mistakes are minor, as technology progresses and visible signs become less noticeable, verbal mistakes --just like the spelling errors noticed in a fraudulent email-- may work as an effective method to spot a forgery.
The counterfeiters have taken a genuine clip of Sally Bundock giving a presentation - which incidentally was addressing Mr Musk's takeover of X - but they have deliberately distorted it to make it appear as if she was talking about an investment chance related to him.
In the Matthew Amroliwana video, there are sounds that are similar to audio cues, with distorted noises occurring at the commencement of certain phrases.
This video contains numerous signifiers that suggest something is not entirely as it appears. The wording used is unlike that typically employed by BBC News, featuring misspellings and peculiar construction.
However, there is an obvious visual mistake - where "Elon Musk" appears to have an extra eye atop his left eye.
Deepfakes often experience this type of glitch, which is caused by a problem with the technology used.
If you find yourself questioning the authenticity of a video, following a single principle will help you determine if it is real: unless you are face to face with Mr Beast or Elon Musk in person, you should know that there is no such thing as a free iPhone.
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