A very concerned Amy Perez tells her story of falling victim to “deepfake” advertising. The dictionary defines “deep fake” as a video of a person in which their face or body has been digitally altered so that they appear to be someone else, typically used maliciously to spread false information.

The said deep fake ad shows Tyang Amy endorsing a product supplement for menopause. 

“Hindi ko akalain yun. Basta mayroon akong kumare na nag-send sa akin ng link. Sabi nya, ‘Mare ini-endorse mo ba ito?’ Sabi ko ‘anu yan?’ So, nung in-open ko yung link nakita ko yung isang existing interview ko sa dati kong morning show sa teleradyo ginamit pala ang interview na yun. (I didn’t expect it at all. I just had a friend who sent me a link and she said, ‘Friend, are you endorsing this?’ I said, ‘What is it?’ So, when I opened the link, I saw an existing interview of mine from my previous morning show on the radio. It turns out they used that interview),” Perez said.

The seasoned TV host studied the video and watched it several times, noticing the flawless manipulation of the video. 

“Totoo yung interview about menopause pero noong nagpasok na about brand… eto na yung kinakatakot natin 10 years ago na kapag nagka AI ito na yung pwede magamit, kasi pwede na nilang… in 5 minutes lang pwede na nila, nagsasalita ka na. I don’t know kung anong machine yun, kung anong technology na makuha nila mismo lahat — yung tono ng boses mo, kung paano ka magsalita, kung saan ka nagpo-pause (The interview about menopause is real, but when they inserted the part about the brand… This is what we’ve been afraid of 10 years ago, that once AI becomes available, they can use it because in just five minutes, they can make you speak. I don’t know what machine, what technology they have acquired, everything: your tone of voice, how you speak, where you pause),” she said. 

Safety

But what really concerns Perez are the netizens who believed that it’s really her endorsing the product. She is also disturbed by its safety.

“Pero kung talagang matalino kang tao, makikita mo na nag-iba ang bukas ng bibig ko pati yung ngipen iba. Pero kung ikaw ay isang nanay na dumadaan sa menopause at ang cellphone mo ay maliit, hindi mo na itatanong yun. Ang una mong itatanong magkano po ito? Effective ba ito? So, noong nakita ko siya, from my heart, ang concern ko talaga ay yung mga bumili ng produkto. Hindi natin alam ano ba yung produkto? Totoo ba siyang nakaka-galing? Totoo ba siyang nakaka-tulong? Hindi ko alam kung asin ba ang laman noon, dinikdik na whatever, ‘yun ang concern ko. At may testimony pa na may picture ko. That is all a lie (But if you’re really intelligent, you’ll see that the opening of my mouth is different, even my teeth are different. But if you’re a mother going through menopause and your cellphone is small, you won’t ask that, your first question would be, ‘How much is it? Is it effective?’ So when I saw it, my concern really came from my heart for those who bought the product. We don’t know what the product is. Is it really effective? Is it really helpful? I don’t know if it’s just salt they put in there, whatever it is, that’s my concern. And there’s even testimony with my picture, but it’s all a lie),” she added.

What worries Amy with this incident is that it can go way out of hand, especially in our country where people spend more time on social media and believe the majority of what they see.

“Sabi ko sa pamangkin ko kung nagagawa na sa boses… Eh nagawa na nga namin sa Magpasikat, ginawa na nila Vhong na pwede sa mukha. Ano pa yung pwede gawin na mga fake na pwedeng ibalita na pwede sabihin na sinabi ng isang tao, sinabi ng isang ganito. At mas nakakatakot kapag malapit na ang elections, marami pwede pag gamitan nyan! Aakalain ng mga tao na sila nga yun at totoong sinabi. So, ikaw kapag naging biktima ka ng ganun, ang hirap ipaliwanag na hindi ikaw yun. Kaya ang nangyayari kapag live ako, nagtatanong ang netizens, ‘Tyang ikaw ba talaga yan?’ (I told my nephew, if they can do it with voices… we’ve already done it in ‘Magpasikat’, they made Vhong’s face possible, what else can they do, what other fakes can be spread, things that someone can say, something like that. And it’s more frightening when elections are approaching, many things can be manipulated! People might believe it’s really them and what they said. So if you become a victim of that, it’s hard to explain that it wasn’t you. That’s why when I’m live, netizens ask, ‘Is that really you, Tyang?” she said. 

Amy also gave update of the source of the deep fake ad.

“Sa Facebook page nila, tinanggal na nila ang picture ko pero ang pinalit naman nila ay ‘yung picture ni Doc Willie Ong. Noong chineck ng lawyer namin ang URL nya, wala siya dito nasa ibang bansa (On their Facebook page, they removed my picture, but they replaced it with a picture of Doc Willie Ong. When our lawyer checked his URL, he’s not here, he’s in another country,” she said.

As of this writing, Amy has no plans of taking legal actions on the matter.