Deepfakes and Burkina Faso:

Over at Vice, Sophia Smith Galer tells us “Someone Made AI Videos of ‘Americans’ Backing a Military Coup in West Africa.”

The videos are in support of Ibrahim Traoré and his Burkinabé military junta. Interestingly,  the junta ordered French troops to leave the country just a few days ago. One such video says:

Hello to the African people and particularly to the Burkinabe people. My name is Alisha and I’m a Pan-Africanist.

I appeal to the solidarity of the Burkinabe people, and the people of Burkina Faso to effectively support the authorities of the transition.

Let us all remain mobilised by the Burkinabe people in this struggle. Homeland or death. We shall overcome.

Synthesia, the creator of the video, would not disclose the identity of their client, but some on Twitter have their suspicions (Cough Wagner Group cough).

It’s uncertain how convincing these videos are. I’m not sure whoever paid for these got their money’s worth. They actually look pretty fake, like narration layered over some random woman talking about something else.

Lol, apparently someone is curculating these deepfake videos of supposed American "Pan-Africanists" expressing support for the junta in Burkina Faso.

Maybe the AI would have been less obvious if they'd just done them in Russian. pic.twitter.com/rvYqMq6tW4

— Lauren Blanchard (@LaurenBinDC) January 26, 2023

How do you spot a deepfake? The BBC has some suggestions.