Nobody is safe from celebrity AI deepfakes
A viral Instagram post featuring an AI-generated image of actress Mia Goth sparked misinformation regarding her personal life. The incident highlights concerns over Meta's verification system, which allowed a fan account to gain a blue checkmark and propagate counterfeit content.
Why it matters
The ease of obtaining verified status on social media platforms facilitates the spread of AI-generated deepfakes, complicating the protection of public figures' likenesses.
In hindsight, the post on Instagram should have raised more red flags. The image purported to show actress Mia Goth, just days after filing for divorce from actor and filmmaker Shia LaBeouf, posing in a T-shirt with a pointed message: MY EX IS MY BIGGEST FAN. To really drive home the point, the song “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” by Beyoncé was added to the post.
It would have been out of character for the star of Pearl, who doesn’t have much of a social media presence, if any. But the Instagram account that posted it, @miagoth_, had more than a million followers and was marked with a blue “verified” checkmark. Within days, the image racked up nearly 500,000 likes, including from peers in the entertainment industry, despite the page being labeled as a fan account.
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