Giorgia Meloni Denounces AI Deepfakes After Viral Misinformation Campaign
Rome: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday condemned the circulation of a deepfake photo of herself posing in bed, wearing underwear, and complained that such AI-generated images were being used to attack her.
Meloni shared the photo in question on Facebook. To this he included an apparent post from someone named Roberto, who apparently shared it on social media, with the comment that Meloni should be “ashamed” of him.
Meloni warned against sharing such images on social media without verification.
“Deepfakes are a dangerous tool because they can deceive, manipulate and target anyone. I can defend myself. Many people cannot,” he warned in his Facebook post.
It was not immediately clear whether Meloni would report the incident to law enforcement, as he had been asked to do by people commenting on his post. She admitted that the photo manipulation “actually makes me look a lot better.”
“But the truth is that people will now use absolutely anything to attack and fabricate lies,” he wrote.
This is not the first time that the likeness of Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister, has made a splash. In February, a minor church-state scandal broke out after an angel who gave Meloni a striking appearance appeared in a Roman church.
Meloni later downplayed the manipulation.
“No, I definitely don’t look like an angel,” Meloni wrote on social media, alongside a photo of the work with a laughing/crying emoji.
