TikTok and other social media platforms are hosting AI-generated deepfake videos of doctors whose words have been manipulated to help sell supplements and spread health misinformation.
Fact checking organization Full Fact has exposed hundreds of such videos. It features fake versions of doctors and influencers who direct viewers to US-based supplement firm Wellness Nest.
All deepfakes consist of real footage of a health expert taken from the Internet. However, the photos and audio have been reworked so that the speaker can encourage women going through menopause to purchase products such as probiotics and Himalayan Shilajit from the company’s website.
The revelations have prompted social media giants to be more careful about hosting AI-generated content and to immediately remove content that distorts the views of prominent people.
“This is certainly a frightening and worrying new strategy,” said fact-checker Leo Benedictus, who conducted the investigation, which Full Fact published Friday.
He said creators of deepfake health videos use AI to pretend that “someone reputable or with a large audience is endorsing these supplements to treat a variety of diseases”.
Professor David Taylor-Robinson, an expert on health inequalities at the University of Liverpool, is among those whose image has been tarnished. In August, he was shocked to find that TikTok was hosting 14 fake videos that purportedly showed them recommending products with unproven benefits.
Although Taylor-Robinson is an expert on children’s health, a cloned version of her was seen in a video talking about an alleged menopause side effect called “thermometer leg”.
Fake Taylor-Robinson suggested that women in menopause should visit a website called Wellness Nest and purchase a natural probiotic that contains “10 science-backed plant extracts, including turmeric, black cohosh, dim (diindolylmethane) and moringa, specifically selected to combat menopause symptoms”.
“Female colleagues often report deeper sleep, fewer hot flashes and brighter mornings within a few weeks,” the deepfake doctor said.
The real Taylor-Robinson learned that her likeness was being used only when a co-worker alerted her. “It was really confusing in the beginning – everything was just surreal,” he said. “My kids thought it was funny.
“I didn’t feel overly insulted, but I was more irritated by the idea that people were selling products off the back of my work and that it contained false health information.”
The footage Taylor-Robinson used to create the deepfake video came from a speech on vaccination she gave at a Public Health England (PHE) conference in 2017, and a parliamentary hearing on child poverty, at which she gave evidence in May this year.
In a misleading video, she was shown swearing and making misogynistic comments while discussing menopause.
TikTok removed the videos six weeks after Taylor-Robinson’s complaint. “Initially, they said some videos violated their guidelines, but some were OK. It was absurd — and weird — because I was in all of them and they were all deepfakes. Removing them was a big mistake,” he said.
Full Fact found that TikTok was also serving eight deepfakes containing doctored statements from former PHE chief executive Duncan Selby. Like Taylor-Robinson, she was also shown talking incorrectly about menopause, using video taken from the same 2017 event where Taylor-Robinson spoke.
A video, also about “thermometer leg”, was “a wonderful imitation”, Selby said. “It’s completely fake from beginning to end. It wasn’t funny in the sense that people pay attention to these things.”
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Full Fact also found similar deepfakes on X, Facebook and YouTube, all of which were linked to a British outlet called Wellness Nest or Wellness Nest UK. It has posted apparent deepfakes of high-profile doctors such as Professor Tim Spector and another dietitian, the late Dr. Michael Mosley.
Wellness Nest told Full Fact that the deepfake videos encouraging people to visit the firm’s website were “100% unrelated” to its business. It says it has “never used AI-generated content”, but “cannot control or monitor affiliates worldwide”.
Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman Helen Morgan said: “From fake doctors to bots that encourage suicide, AI is being used to prey on innocent people and exploit the growing cracks in our health system.
“Liberal Democrats are calling for AI deepfakes posing as medical professionals to be outlawed, with medically approved tools to be strongly promoted so we can fill the void.
“If these were individuals fraudulently pretending to be doctors, they would have faced criminal charges. Why is the digital counterpart being tolerated?”
“Where someone asks for health advice from an AI bot, they should be automatically referred to NHS support so they can receive the diagnosis and treatment they really need, with criminal liability for those who profit from medical disinformation.”
A TikTok spokesperson said: ,We have removed this content (related to Taylor-Robinson and Selby) for breaking our rules against harmful misinformation and behavior that attempts to mislead our community, such as impersonation.
“Harmful AI-generated content is an industry-wide challenge, and we continue to invest in new ways to detect and remove content that violates our Community Guidelines.”
The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.
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