Ukrainian YouTuber victim of identity theft finds herself a Russian influencer

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – Deceptive lookalikes. Olga Loiek, a 21-year-old Ukrainian YouTuber, was the victim of identity theft a few weeks ago, the Reuters news agency reported this Friday, June 21. His image, transformed using Chinese artificial intelligence, made it possible to create Russian alter egos broadcast on several social media platforms in the country led by Xi Jinping.

These replicas claim to be Russian women who speak fluent Chinese and want to thank China for its support of Russia. These lookalikes, one of which is called “ Nathasa » were created from this YouTuber’s image and generated by AI.

“It’s literally like my face is speaking Mandarin, and in the background I see the Kremlin and Moscow, and I’m talking about how great Russia and China are.”the Ukrainian YouTuber told Reuters this Friday. “It was really scary, because these are things I would never say in my life,” she added. However, some messages contain a disclaimer stating that they may have been created using AI.

A scam to trap Chinese singles

But that’s not all. These false lookalikes, who have hundreds of thousands of subscribers in China, much more than Olga Loiek, who currently has 17,800, also take the opportunity to extract a little money by selling products such as Russian sweets.

This is not the first time that China has used artificial intelligence to create fake accounts, carried mainly by female figures, who display their love of China and declare support for Russia in the war against Ukraine.

Jim Chai, chief executive of XMOV, a company that develops advanced AI technology but is not involved in the YouTuber’s case, says the technology to create such images is “very common because many people use it in China”. Speaking to Reuters, some experts explain that these avatars are used to attract Chinese singles and sell them products.

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