A video showing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and other personalities promoting an investment platform is fake and manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI).
Uploaded on July 9, the one-minute and four-second video supposedly features an ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) report on the “economic project” allegedly backed by the administration.
It starts with ANC anchor Rica Lazo introducing a “live” interview with Marcos about the platform. The video then flashes a clip of the president where he supposedly said:
“This project is not just an opportunity to improve the lives of Filipinos but also to develop our country’s economy. It is about stability and confidence for every citizen! Long live the Philippines and its economy!”
It also shows a video of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Eli Remolona expressing support for the project.
The administration does not have such a program. The publisher used AI to imitate the personalities’ voices and alter their videos.
It manipulated a video of Marcos at the April 10 Bagong Pilipinas town hall meeting on traffic concerns. He did not mention anything about an investment platform in his speech or in the open forum.
Remolona’s appearance at a BSP press briefing on April 8 on its monetary policy stance was also altered.
Meanwhile, Lazo’s clips came from the June 24, 2023 broadcast of Dateline Philippines.
The post further leads netizens to a website with the domain name primitikpx.xyz which contains a Sunstar article about the investment platform “Quantum AI” and how netizens can sign up. Sunstar, with its official website found at Sunstar.com.ph, did not release such a story.
VERA Files has previously debunked another fake ad for “Quantum AI” that employed the same modus.
More than two months ago, the Presidential Communications Office also disowned an AI-generated audio clip of Marcos related to the West Philippine Sea dispute.
The fake project endorsement was uploaded six days after the government launched its National Artificial AI Strategy Roadmap 2.0 which aims to use AI’s “transformative potential” in boosting the country’s economy.
FB page Excellent chrysanthemum‘s (created on May 31) post garnered 170 reactions, 49 comments, 17 shares and 93,000 views. There are several copies of the ad according to Meta’s ad library.
