SINGAPORE — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has urged the public not to respond to deepfake videos of him promising guaranteed returns on investments after one such video emerged on social media platforms in recent days.

In a post on his Facebook page on Friday (Dec 29) morning, Mr Lee said he was aware of several videos circulating of him “purporting to promote crypto scams”, adding that Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had also been targeted.

“The scammers use AI (artificial intelligence) technology to mimic our voices and images,” Mr Lee said. 

“They transform real footage of us taken from official events into very convincing but completely bogus videos of us purporting to say things that we have never said.”

One such altered video depicts Mr Lee in an interview with a presenter from the Chinese news network CGTN in a segment titled "Leaders Talk".

The video has been altered to make it seem like he is talking about a government-sanctioned "transformative investment platform envisioned by Elon Musk".

“If you see or receive these scam videos promising guaranteed returns on investments or ‘giveaways’, please do not respond to them!” Mr Lee wrote. 

He also advised Singaporeans to report scams and fake news via the government’s official ScamShield Bot on WhatsApp.

Mr Lee has posted about the dangers of AI on his social media on several occasions in the past. 

In a Facebook post in September 2019, he said that it is becoming more difficult to believe what you see or hear as AI becomes more sophisticated.

In another post in July this year, he said that scammers tend to capitalise on periods where there is a lot of media coverage on him to use his image to run crypto scams and fake ads.

“The use of deepfake technology to spread disinformation will continue to grow,” said Mr Lee on Friday.

“We must remain vigilant and learn to protect ourselves and our loved ones against such scams.”