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Analysis
An advertisement that made the rounds on TikTok appeared to show podcast host Joe Rogan promoting a libido supplement for men.
But the words uttered by Rogan and his facial movements were generated by artificial intelligence.
The ad—which shows actual footage from a podcast episode in which Stanford Medicine Neurobiology Professor Andrew D. Huberman discusses ways to boost testosterone—features the AI-generated Rogan offering a glowing endorsement for the supplement called “Alpha Grind.”
“Well look, that Alpha Grind products that’s all over TikTok, if you go to Amazon and type in ‘libido booster for men,’ you’re going to find it right at the top,” the AI-produced Rogan voice says. “And that’s because guys are figuring out it is literally increasing size and making a difference down there.”
While the fake dialogue might be easy for some to spot, it appeared to fool others. Many users across social media expressed shock over how convincing the ad appeared.
“This AI deepfake video rendering of Joe Rogan is going viral on TikTok,” one user wrote. “This is the start of massive waves of new scams & misinformation!”
Given that Rogan already promotes a product known as “Alpha Brain,” the unknown producers of the ad likely chose the name of their product in order to appear as legitimate as possible.
Professor Huberman, who is also featured in the ad, confirmed in a statement on Twitter that the comments made by the deepfake Rogan were not legitimate.
“They created a false conversation. We never had,” he wrote. “We were talking about something very different.”
The ad was traced back to a TikTok user known as @mikesmithtrainer, who featured multiple other videos hailing the effectiveness of Alpha Grind. After being alerted to the issue, TikTok ultimately took down the account.
TikTok later stated in comments to Mashable that the account was removed for violating its “harmful misinformation policy.”
Ultimately, it remains unknown whether the ad was successful in convincing TikTok users to buy the product.
The video was also later removed from Twitter under copyright grounds, although it’s unclear who exactly sought the removal.
Why it matters
As deepfake and voice-cloning technologies become increasingly commonplace and simple to use, scammers will undoubtedly continue to take advantage.
Users more and more need to be cautious about what they see online and do their due diligence when watching advertisements and buying products.
Mikael Thalen
Mikael Thalen is a tech and security reporter covering social media, data breaches, hackers, and more.
