Deepfake Mandarin

Recently, American pop star Taylor Swift has captured the hearts of her Chinese fans through a series of viral videos that showcased her fluency in Mandarin. In one of the clips, Swift chatted about her travels to Italy, France, and Japan, displaying near-perfect Chinese pronunciation. In another, she discussed the creative process behind her albums, effortlessly conversing in Mandarin with a hint of her American accent.

However, the twist in this story is that Swift's newfound Mandarin skills were not acquired through hours of language learning but rather through the magic of artificial intelligence (AI). These deepfake videos were created by the Chinese startup Hey-Gen, known for its AI-powered video generator.

The technology was so advanced that it perfectly synced Swift's lip movements with the Mandarin words, even replicating her voice.

Some fans are delighted by this AI-generated Swift, but others have expressed concerns. As AI continues to blur the lines between reality and artificial creation, people worry about the potential loss of jobs for voice actors and, more importantly, the rise of frauds and scams online.

The case of AI-generated deepfakes is not unique to Swift. Recently, a fake video featuring American supermodel Bella Hadid also went viral on social media platform X. It falsely portrayed Hadid as expressing support for Israel, while the original video is actually of her giving an unrelated speech at the 2016 Global Lyme Alliance New York Gala.

Perhaps it's time for fans to decide whether they really want a Mandarin-speaking AI Taylor Swift instead of an authentic English-speaking pop sensation.