Miracle Cures: A Sea of Videos Victimizing Renowned Doctors

Miracle Cures: A Sea of Videos Victimizing Renowned Doctors

The dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) seem to have reached some of the world’s most respected doctors. In recent times, misleading ads created using AI have been circulating on social media platforms, featuring images of renowned doctors promoting miracle cures for diabetes and high blood pressure. Experts believe that containing this phenomenon is becoming increasingly difficult.

On platforms like Facebook and Instagram, these fake doctors claim to offer diabetes treatments that bypass the commonly prescribed medication metformin. They even encourage patients to abandon their prescribed medication, which they claim is harmful, in favor of a mysterious natural drink.

These scams put many patients' lives at risk, especially since they rely on the likeness of well-known doctors, such as Dr. Michel Cymes in France and Dr. Michael Mosley in the UK, who have both been victims of this deepfake trend online.

Even controversial figures, such as Professor Didier Raoult in France, have fallen prey to this fraud.

Trust in These Figures

British doctor John Cormack, who collaborates with the British Medical Journal (BMJ), stated, “People trust these videos because these doctors have spent years building their credibility, so we tend to believe them, even when they make outrageous claims.”

He added, "Even when these videos are taken down, they reappear the next day under different titles."

Dr. Michel Cymes has revealed that he has filed a lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Facebook, in response to these fraudulent practices, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Deepfake Technology

AI specialist Henry Ajder explained that these deepfake scams only began to surge this year, primarily targeting an older demographic by distorting the images of doctors frequently seen on television.

The rise of these deepfake scams has been fueled by advancements in deep learning technology, which aims to enable machines to learn autonomously, according to Frédéric Jaury, a professor and researcher in computer science at the University of Caen.

Fake images and information (illustrative from iStock).

He also pointed out that the quality of deepfake images, audio, and videos has significantly improved. “We now have access to billions of images, allowing us to build algorithms that can model everything seen in pictures and regenerate them—this is what we call generative AI,” he explained.

Australian naturopath Barbara O’Neill, who was previously deemed a health hazard by her country’s authorities for promoting baking soda as a cancer cure, has become a star on TikTok and Instagram, thanks to deepfake technology. It has enabled her to market pills for cleaning blood vessels.

Henry Ajder wasn’t surprised by this development, stating, “These individuals serve as icons for some conspiracy theorist circles.”

Among the fake videos featuring O'Neill, several perpetuate conspiracy theories, falsely claiming that natural medicine has died after the discovery of a miracle oil sold on Amazon.

The Growing Challenge

What’s most concerning is the experts’ skepticism about the effectiveness of tools designed to detect and stop deepfake scams. Many are doubtful about the success of these detection methods.