War-wounded British veterans peddling so-called “handmade” patriotic items in emotional videos on social media are nothing more than AI-generated impostors peddling cheap junk from China, a new report suggests.
Some shameless peddlers have used artificial intelligence to make videos showing disabled and disfigured veterans claiming to have suffered injuries, such as an eye and nose lost in combat, while seeking support from sympathetic buyers, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported.
“They are despicable,” Army veteran Raymond Gilbert told the outlet after being tricked into paying $200 for what he thought was a wooden flag figurine made by a disabled fellow service member.
But what arrived, he said, was a package with Chinese writing on the envelope, and inside, a printed image of a flag simply glued to a piece of plywood.
“Using our disabled army veterans is abhorrent – tugging at our heartstrings to help these people – is a despicable thing to do,” added Gilbert, who served as head of quality for the British Army in Afghanistan.
Gilbert, like other people fooled by AI, found the videos of the ads on TikTok, according to the media outlet.
The AI videos showed veterans with sad captions about society turning its back on them after going to war.
“I will NEVER buy a wooden flag from someone who looks like you,” one article depicting a fake veterinarian was told before advertising the cheap products.
Similar videos are all over Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, with sellers advertising bags, cutting boards and door wreaths.
Will Guyatt, a technology expert, told the outlet that these videos are made in just a few minutes and can be asked to deliberately make them too emotional with just one prompt.
Currently, consumers must rely on e-commerce platforms and social media sites to proactively remove fake ads, but once these are removed, gutless culprits often simply create a new account and repost the AI ads.
“In many ways we are fighting a losing battle,” Daniel Fletcher, a British lawyer, said of the AI-slop takeover.
Gn world
