An AI-generated video of Taylor Swift is going viral in the Philippines. The singer is shown saying that she needs to “stay away” from the influential Duterte family supporters.
In a TikTok video, the American superstar is shown saying she canceled her “Eras” tour to the country only to “stay away from the Duterte supporters.” According to an AFP report, the video was uploaded to the platform on August 10.
Taylor Swift’s clip appeared amid political rifts
The news agency said it traced the video clip to a TikTok account, whose owner said they used an artificial intelligence tool for regenerating or cloning celebrity voices.
The video came at a time when there were growing differences between President Ferdinand Marcos and his deputy Sara Duterte. Both leaders secured a landslide victory in May 2022 elections.
The singer’s voiceover said in the video, “I just feel sorry for the Philipinos who are not DDS,” adding that she wants to perform for them. The voiceover referred to Diehard Duterte’s supporters.
A line of Tagalog-language text overlaid on the video also read, “To DDS, listen to this.” Many social media users assumed the Swift video was genuine while users who were not in support of Marcos said that Swift’s remarks were in support of their favorite candidate.
The video clip also got attention because both the Marcos and Duterte families are having serious and public disagreements. They are trying to strengthen their separate support bases ahead of the 2025 mid-term elections.
A 2021 interview clip was used to create the deepfake
According to the news agency, it discovered a TikTok profile @DDSBeLike through a Google reverse image search on July 30. The profile mentioned it shares satirical posts.
An uncropped version of Swift’s video can be seen in a video shared by this account, along with two other photos below the clip. One of the photos shows a woman resembling the vice president flaunting a flower crown, and the other image shows Swift performing in Melbourne, Australia, in February 2024.
The video’s caption reads there is “no wonder there is no Eras tour here.” The caption further mentions it’s because of DDS (Diehard Duterte Supporters). The caption also taunts DDS saying this is AI in case they react without reading first.
AFP said the profile user confirmed today that the video was created with an AI tool called Starvoice.ai. The tool is a text-to-speech application. The report said that the user has now marked the video as AI-generated. This label appears on posts that are created with AI or contain a significant portion of AI-edited content.
The news agency also mentioned Siwei Lyu, the director of the Media Forensic Lab at the University of Buffalo, who said the video is AI-generated. Lyu also highlighted abnormalities in Swift’s lips and teeth in the video, which are obvious signs of deepfakes.
On further investigation, the report said that old interview footage from “Late Night with Seth” was misused to create the deepfake of the US singer. The original interview dates back to November 2021, during which she does not talk about any Eras tour or Duterte’s supporters.
Previously, Swift was falsely shown in an AI-generated ad telling fans she was giving away 3000 sets of cast iron pots for free to her fans, which were actually worth $1000 each.
