happy earth day! this morning, i broke the ice on working on my first IRB form. i feel like this is such a big kid step in the PhD world, it's very exciting. hoping to get a good chunk of it done before friday and i'll probably need more help from my PI than i originally expected on it but that's okay :)
the past weekend was a great balancing act of adulting, relaxing, and academia. had a study date with a friend at the library for neural engineering, went to the pool, had date night w the boyf, and also went for a run with the pup. and i finished 2 library books (praise the LORD)
A content creator was hired by an agency to make some generic videos - that were used as a source to generate (using Heygen) a whole range of new video ads using her image and voice (via The HeyGen/Arcads AI Woman Spokesmodel Is Real, Sort Of)
No, non parlo tedesco, né portoghese, né cinese, né francese.
Questo video è realizzato con #heygen un software A.I. che traduce istantaneamente l'audio di un video, modificando il labiale con tecniche deepfake per generare un contenuto più credibile.
i just submitted my poster to print for this consortium on Monday and i'm so excited/nervous! this is my first time presenting on this work and i'm not sure how i'll do, but i'm going to practice over the weekend :) tomorrow, i'm picking up my business casual clothes from the dry cleaners
been working hard in my classes (anatomy studying pictured above) and just making sure i play hard on the weekends. going to see family this weekend and i can't wait <3
A clone of a Ukrainian blogger selling russian goods was created in China
"Russian beauty, the Chinese welcome you."
The avatars in the video are created from stolen and altered online images. Women in real life recognized themselves in the video.
Olga Loyek is one of these women. A 20-year-old Ukrainian woman studies cognitive science at the University of Pennsylvania. A few months ago, Loyek opened a YouTube channel where she talks about mental health and shares her philosophical views on life. However, soon after that, she started receiving messages from followers who said they saw her on Chinese social networks.
There, she is not Olga Loek, but a russian woman who speaks Chinese, loves China, and wants to marry a Chinese man. Her name is Natasha, Anna, or Grace, depending on the social media platform in China.
"I started translating the videos using Google Translate and realized that most of these accounts were talking about things like China, russia, and how good relations are between China and Russia," she told VOA. "It's very offensive."
In some videos, the avatars talk about how they appreciate the close ties between russia and China. Other clips praise Chinese history and culture or talk about how strongly russian women want to marry a Chinese man.
"If you marry a russian woman, we will do the laundry, cook, and wash the dishes every day," says the avatar. "We will also give you foreign children as many as you want."
Douyin and Bilibili video sites contain several dozen videos in which Loyek's avatar speaks Chinese. Most of these accounts invite viewers to visit online stores to buy what they say are authentic russian goods.
Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, flagged some of these videos as potentially generated by artificial intelligence. But it is clear from the comments that many believers are looking at a real woman. One user wrote: "Russian beauty, the Chinese welcome you."
Loyek said she would never say such things, obviously considering she is from Ukraine, which has been at war with russia since 2022 [2014 actually - N.B. from the translator]. She said: "It's probably used to make people, maybe people in China, feel that foreigners think their country is the best."
On Bilibili, China's largest video site, some AI videos using the Loyek creature are labeled with HeyGen logos, indicating that the video was created on the company's website.
In one video from Bilibili, the demonstrator even shows how to make a short HeyGen video with clips of Loek speaking. HeyGen is an AI campaign based in Los Angeles that has been operating in China since 2020. It specializes in realistic digital avatars, voice generation, and video translation. According to Forbes, the campaign is now valued at $75 million.
HeyGen's moderation policy states that users may not create avatars that "depict real people, including celebrities or public figures, without express consent."
Avatar campaign video shows users must send videos to people who agree to use their picture Loyek said that after she and her YouTube followers sent complaints to Chinese social media campaigns, about a dozen accounts impersonating her were removed.