"Could it be Mayor?"... Laughter Erupts as 30s O Sehun Appears with Fit Body

Transformed into a fit actor in his 30s with deepfake
Oh Se-hoon: "We will do our best to protect citizens' personal rights"

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon transformed into a muscular actor in his 30s using deepfake technology.

On the 19th, Yoon Young-hee, a Seoul city council member (People Power Party), who appeared as a questioner at the 327th regular session of the Seoul Metropolitan Council, mentioned that deepfake crime victims among local council members are increasing recently and revealed a deepfake video made with Mayor Oh Se-hoon's face.

Deepfake video of Mayor Oh Se-hoon appearing at the 327th Regular Session of the Seoul Metropolitan Council.
[Photo by Seoul Metropolitan Council YouTube capture]

In the process of requesting measures to prevent deepfake crimes targeting local council members, Councilor Yoon created the video herself to easily explain the impact of deepfake technology.

Using a mobile phone application, Councilor Yoon synthesized Mayor Oh’s face onto a video of a foreign actor. She pointed out, “I made this video in less than a minute, it was even free, and it was very easy.”

When the video was played in the meeting room, the attendees burst into laughter, and Mayor Oh also smiled on the podium, responding, “It strangely resembles me.”

Through this video, Councilor Yoon made people realize the ease and low cost of deepfake technology and its risks. She urged the preparation of countermeasures at the local government level, saying, “Deepfakes, which anyone can easily create like this, have a high possibility of infringing on personal honor and privacy or causing social confusion.”

In response, Mayor Oh stated that Seoul City is proactively responding to digital sex crimes. He explained, “Seoul City has introduced an AI program at the Digital Sexual Crime Victim Support Center to detect and delete related videos,” adding, “In the past, this had to be done manually by people, but now it can be processed in large quantities through AI technology.” He emphasized, “Since victims suffer severe social and psychological damage, we will continue to thoroughly protect personal rights.”

Deepfake video of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon appearing at the 3rd plenary session of the 327th regular meeting of the Seoul Metropolitan Council on the 19th.
[Photo by YouTube channel 'Seoul Metropolitan Council' video capture]

Earlier, on the 17th, the National Police Agency announced that it had received reports from 30 basic council members nationwide, including Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Gwangju, and Daegu, who received deepfake threat emails. The photos used in the illegal composites were ID photos of council members posted on the council’s website and other internet sites.

The email sender was investigated to have induced victims to send cryptocurrency worth $50,000 (about 70 million KRW) via QR code as a ransom for deleting the illegal composites.

Meanwhile, deepfake refers to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to synthesize a specific person’s face or body onto other videos or images. Recently, deepfake damage has rapidly spread as obscene materials synthesized with ordinary people’s faces have been indiscriminately distributed through the anonymous messenger Telegram.