Social media is being flooded by digitally created "deepfake" videos using the trusted identities of famous doctors to promote dangerous miracle cures for serious health problems, experts warn. Videos on Facebook and Instagram have taken advantage of the credibility of star TV doctors to advertise untested "natural" syrups for diabetes, even claiming that the proven, first-line drug metformin "could kill" patients. These scams risk endangering lives, experts said, particularly because they deploy the likenesses of popular health experts such as British TV presenter Michael Mosley, who died earlier this year.
"People do seem to trust these videos," British doctor John Cormack told AFP. "A lot of these media doctors have spent a great deal of time creating an image of trustworthiness, so they are believed even when they make incredible claims," said Cormack, who has worked with the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on the subject. Artificial intelligence (AI) expert Henry Ajder said that doctor deepfakes "really took off this year".
The AI videos typically target older audiences by faking the identity of doctors who appear regularly on daytime television, Ajder said. French doctor Michel Cymes, who often appears on TV in France, told AFP in May that he was taking legal action against Facebook owner Meta about "scams" using his image. British doctor Hilary Jones even hired an investigator to track deepfakes that featured his likeness.
One video depicted Jones selling a false cure fo.