An advertising agency used AI to manipulate a 2018 TED Talk by North Carolina state senator DeAndrea Salvador, altering her voice and presentation slides to make it appear she was discussing energy poverty in São Paulo, Brazil instead of the United States for a Whirlpool marketing video.
In June 2024, North Carolina state senator DeAndrea Salvador discovered that her 2018 TED Talk about energy costs for low-income Americans had been manipulated using AI technology. The São Paulo-based advertising agency DM9, a subsidiary of Omnicom Group, altered a 20-second clip from Salvador's talk for a Whirlpool marketing video promoting energy-efficient appliances in Brazil. The AI manipulation changed Salvador's voice to make her appear to discuss low-income residents of São Paulo rather than American communities, and altered her presentation slides to display data about São Paulo instead of U.S. statistics. The manipulated video, titled 'Efficient Way to Pay,' won two awards at the Cannes Lions International Festival in France, including the Grand Prix in the creative data category and a Bronze Lion in creative commerce. The incident was discovered when Salvador received emails from people in Brazil and a journalist asking about the video. CNN Brazil also filed a complaint after discovering manipulated content from their broadcasts in the same video. DM9 later acknowledged using AI to alter the video and returned the Cannes Lions awards, apologizing for 'serious inconsistencies related to the veracity or legitimacy of the works presented.' Salvador filed a federal lawsuit against Whirlpool, Omnicom Group, and their subsidiaries for unauthorized use of her image, arguing the video could damage her reputation as a lawmaker and energy affordability advocate.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed