An AI-generated news presenter has appeared in a video attacking Taiwan's outgoing president, Tsai Ing-wen, describing her as 'as effective as limp spinach'. The clip, which uses an extended pun on the Mandarin term for water spinach, accuses Tsai of presiding over economic underperformance and social unrest. It is designed to influence the Taiwanese presidential election, although its source remains unclear.
Such deepfake news anchors are proliferating on social media, spreading state-backed propaganda. Experts warn that as the technology becomes more accessible, these videos will continue to multiply. 'It does not need to be perfect,' said Tyler Williams of the disinformation research firm Graphika, noting that users scrolling through platforms like X or TikTok are unlikely to notice subtle flaws.
Beijing has experimented with AI news anchors since 2018, when state news agency Xinhua unveiled Qiu Hao, a digital presenter. Although Qiu Hao did not attract a wide audience, pro-China bot accounts later distributed AI-generated deepfake videos from a fictitious broadcaster called Wolf News, accusing the US of failing to address gun violence and highlighting China's role at an international summit.
In April, Microsoft released a report stating that Chinese state-backed cyber groups had targeted the Taiwanese election with AI-generated disinformation, including fake news anchors. One clip made unsubstantiated claims about the private life of the ultimately successful candidate, Lai Ching-te. Microsoft said the anchors were created using CapCut, a video editing tool developed by ByteDance, which owns TikTok.
Other examples include clips from a group called Storm 1376, or Spamouflage, featuring an AI-generated blonde presenter alleging that the US and India are secretly selling weapons to Myanmar’s military. Despite realistic visuals, the videos are undermined by stiff, computer-generated voices. Clint Watts of Microsoft’s threat analysis centre said the Chinese have moved quickly to integrate AI into propaganda, but so far the efforts have been 'not particularly effective'.
