Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Also Targeted by AI Deepfake... Spreading on SNS

Kishida's Malicious Video "Made for Fun"
Broadcast Station Used Without Permission "Cannot Forgive"

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
[Photo by AFP]

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the 4th that a deepfake video of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida created using artificial intelligence (AI) is spreading on social media (SNS).

The video features Prime Minister Kishida dressed in a suit, uttering insults and other remarks, and displays the logo of the local private broadcaster Nippon Television (Nittere) news program. It also includes text such as "LIVE" and "BREAKING NEWS," giving the impression that Kishida's statements are being broadcast live as urgent news.

The 3-minute and 43-second deepfake video was initially posted this summer on internet video channels like "Nico Nico." Later, a shortened 30-second version was uploaded to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on the 2nd, garnering over 2.32 million views within a day.

A 25-year-old man living in Osaka admitted to the Yomiuri Shimbun that he created and uploaded the deepfake video of Prime Minister Kishida using generative AI, stating that he "made it for fun."

The man explained that he trained the AI with the Prime Minister’s voice from publicly available videos such as Kishida’s press conferences and speeches at the Liberal Democratic Party conventions to prepare the fake voice.

He also said he used the Nittere news program that covered Kishida’s online press conference. Nittere stated, "We absolutely cannot forgive the misuse of Nittere’s broadcast and program logos in the deepfake video," and added, "We will take appropriate measures as necessary."