The tip about the Mars video came to Verification Help this week. We also reviewed a post about a submarine in Norway and manipulated images of Mayan statues.
“The images are super sharp, which felt too good to be true. I could not find these images myself in Nasa’s own channels so I became doubtful. Can you take a look?” writes viewer Ellinor about the Mars video to Verifieringshjälpen.
Our review of the clip reveals a mix of false and true claims about the images from Mars.
“Scary”
But something almost everyone missed, even though the evidence was right in front of them, was that the woman talking was a deepfake.
The digital footprints lead us to Amy Wang, who runs the YouTube channel Your A+ Life.
– I have never said anything like this, she tells Verifieringshjälpen.
The movements her AI clone makes are identical to the ones she makes in the original videowhere she talks about personal development.
But in Marsklippet, the mouth has been manipulated and what she says is replaced.
After the Mars video received at least 14.7 million views, it disappeared sometime between November 27-28.
The verification helper has tried to reach the Tiktok account which, despite the video being taken down, continues to publish Mars clips with Amy Wang’s face.
Hundreds of thousands of followers – in a week
Amy doesn’t know what the motive behind the account is, or why it targeted her. She can only speculate.
– Maybe it’s about there being a lot of material to train an AI model with because I also have a podcast. At the same time, I’m not so famous that people would react immediately.
– Then they could make the account grow quickly and sell it in the future.
The Tiktok account has gained over 240,000 followers in just over a week.
Which of the Mars claims is true? See the image review in the clip above.