Unknown actors created deepfake videos of author Shaun Rein reading chapters from his book 'The Split' using AI voice cloning technology, posting them on YouTube without permission and generating over 200,000 streams.
Unknown actors created seven deepfake videos appearing to show author Shaun Rein reading chapters from his 2024 book 'The Split', published by John Murray Press. The videos were posted on 'The US-China Narrative' YouTube channel, which appears to be based in Singapore, and accumulated over 200,000 streams in one week. Rein discovered the videos when people messaged him congratulating him on his podcast, despite him never creating such content. The AI-generated voice was so convincing that Rein said 'it was really hard for me to realise that it wasn't me' and estimated that 95% of the text used his actual words from the book. The deception was only apparent when the voice spoke in Chinese, as Rein rarely does audio recordings in Mandarin. Rein expressed concerns about copyright infringement, loss of control over his likeness, and potential for more malicious uses of the technology. His agent Chris Newson warned about existing fake social media accounts and the risk of creating 'counterproductive and quite nasty content' using Rein's voice and image. The incident raised concerns about territorial rights enforcement across multiple jurisdictions and highlighted gaps in publisher marketing strategies that AI creators are exploiting.
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
