Incident 568: AI-Generated Voices Amplify Conspiracy Theories on TikTok

Description: NewsGuard has identified 17 TikTok accounts that have been using AI-generated voices to advance and amplify conspiracy theories and false claims beginning in June 2023. By September 25, 2023, these accounts had amassed over 336 million views and over 14.5 million likes. Videos include baseless claims involving public figures such as Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Jamie Foxx.

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Entities

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Alleged: ElevenLabs developed an AI system deployed by TikTok user @e.news.tv , TikTok user @d.news.tv , TikTok user @drphilshowtv , TikTok user @ynewstv2023 and TikTok users, which harmed Barack Obama , Oprah Winfrey , Jamie Foxx , Joan Rivers , Phil McGraw , Yahoo! News , E! News , TikTok and General public.

Incident Stats

Incident ID

568

Report Count

Incident Date

2023-06-01

Editors

Anonymous User

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

AI Voice Technology Used to Create Conspiracy Videos on TikTok, at Scale

newsguardtech.com

‘A.I. Obama’ and Fake Newscasters: How A.I. Audio Is Swarming TikTok

nytimes.com

newsguardtech.com · 2023

A network of 17 TikTok accounts appears to be leveraging hyper-realistic audio AI voice technology to gain hundreds of millions of views on conspiracy content that sounds authentically human, NewsGuard has found. The accounts seem to be usi…

nytimes.com · 2023

In a slickly produced TikTok video, former President Barack Obama — or a voice eerily like his — can be heard defending himself against an explosive new conspiracy theory about the sudden death of his former chef.

“While I cannot comprehend…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.