Singapore, Dec 29 (EFE).- Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong denounced Friday the circulation of deepfakes that use artificial intelligence technology to pretend that the leader promotes alleged platforms to citizens investment in cryptocurrencies.
“‘Tis the season for scams! Recently, there have been a number of audio deepfake videos of me purporting to promote crypto scams,” Lee wrote in a post on his Facebook .
“(Deputy Prime Minister) Lawrence Wong has also been targeted! The scammers use AI technology to mimic our voices and images. They transform real footage of us taken from official events into very convincing but completely bogus videos of us purporting to say things that we have never said,” he wrote.
The leader attached in his comment one of the videos denounced as deep-fake, in which he appears to be supposedly interviewed by a presenter from Chinese television network CGTN.
In it Lee is seen and heard saying that “quantum computing algorithms analyze market trends, make strategic investment decisions and execute trades (…) It is essentially hands-free crypto trading with a track record of success.”
The false investment platform announced in the manipulated video, based on an interview Lee gave to the Chinese network in March, according to Channel News Asia, is presented with the approval of Singapore’s government and includes a link for s to participate.
Wong, to whom Lee said in November that he would delegate the position before the 2025 elections, also reported a fake video promoting investment products on his Facebook on Dec. 11.
Wong himself announced at the beginning of December that Singapore, one of the main innovation laboratories in Asia-Pacific, seeks to triple the number of professionals dedicated to artificial intelligence in the city-state, up to a total of 15,000.
The finance minister then said Singapore seeks to extract the benefits of AI for the “common good, while mitigating its impact on other jobs, as well as its risks regarding scams, “deepfakes” or images that are not real, cyberattacks and disinformation.” EFE
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