Purported AI-Generated Audio Was Reportedly Used to Claim Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Expressed Support for Imran Khan in Pakistani Parliament

A reported viral video that was circulated in Pakistan featured purported AI-generated audio depicting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressing support for jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan during his 2025 visit. The video is described as having reused footage from 2020 and featured AI-generated audio that fabricated remarks Erdoğan never made. The synthetic voice was reportedly confirmed by forensic tools and audio analysis.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 4 Malicious actors
• Primary risk subdomain: 4.1 Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale

The incident involves the creation and viral dissemination of a political deepfake designed to manipulate public opinion and political processes in Pakistan at scale.

Additional risk subdomains

• 3.1 False or misleading information: The AI-generated audio fabricated statements by a foreign leader, spreading false information to the public.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Intentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The incident was caused by a human actor who intentionally generated and distributed synthetic audio of a political figure to mislead the public after the AI tool was deployed.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Risk Level 3. Limited Risk: The report describes the creation of AI-generated content such as deepfakes, which pose a moderate risk and require transparency obligations under the EU AI Act.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: unspecified
• AI purpose: Voice Generation; Text Style Replication
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Unknown voice cloning technology, Unknown deepfake technology developers
• Alleged deployer: Unknown actors
• Alleged harmed parties: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Pakistan-Turkey relations, Imran Khan, General public of Turkey, General public of Pakistan

Harm severity

Severity ratings are based on this scale.

Highest direct severity in any category: Minor. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Minor, indirect Minor
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Minor, indirect Minor
• Privacy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Minor, indirect Minor
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

Malicious content

Reported: Yes, the report describes the creation and spread of a malicious deepfake video containing synthetic audio.

Directly caused: The incident directly involved the creation of a synthetic audio track falsely attributing political statements to Turkish President Erdogan.

Indirectly caused: The synthetic video was shared widely across social media platforms, reaching hundreds of thousands of viewers on Facebook, YouTube, and X.

Inferred additional harm: It is likely that similar synthetic political content was generated using the same underlying voice-cloning technology to target other political figures, though not detailed in this report.

Democracy

Reported: Yes, the report describes an attempt to manipulate political discourse and public opinion in Pakistan using synthetic media.

Directly caused: The deepfake falsely depicted a foreign head of state commenting on Pakistan's internal political affairs and expressing support for an incarcerated former Prime Minister.

Indirectly caused: The viral spread of the video on social media platforms potentially misled hundreds of thousands of citizens, undermining the integrity of public political information.

Inferred additional harm: The widespread use of such deepfakes could lead to a broader erosion of trust in official diplomatic communications and democratic institutions in Pakistan.

Epistemic

Reported: Yes, the report explicitly describes epistemic harm through the fabrication of political statements using AI-generated audio.

Directly caused: The AI-generated audio fabricated a speech where Erdogan supposedly reminisced about Imran Khan and expressed a desire to shake hands with him.

Indirectly caused: The fabrication misled social media users, with the video being viewed over 490,000 times across Facebook, YouTube, and X, polluting the information ecosystem.

Inferred additional harm: The incident likely contributes to a general 'liar's dividend' where the public becomes increasingly skeptical of genuine audio and video recordings of political figures.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly harmed: 2
• People reportedly exposed: 491800

Potential causes

Technology

• AI Voice Cloning Technology: Allowed generation of a highly realistic synthetic voice of President Erdogan.
• Acoustic Post-Processing: Artificial reverb was used to blend synthetic audio with authentic background.
• Uniform Frequency Generation: Synthetic generator produced constant pitch patterns atypical of human speech.

Human Factors

• Malicious Political Motivation: Users intentionally spread the deepfake to influence political narratives.
• Lack of Public Verification: Social media users shared the video widely without checking its authenticity.

Process and Methods

• Ineffective Platform Moderation: Social media platforms failed to detect and flag the synthetic audio quickly.
• Reactive Fact-Checking Process: Fact-checking occurred after the video had already garnered viral reach.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report provides clear, fact-checked details about the synthetic nature of the audio, the specific platforms where it was shared, and the view counts. Multiple forensic tools and expert analyses confirm the AI-generated nature of the clip, leaving little ambiguity about the core events.
• Ambiguities identified: The specific AI model or software used to generate the synthetic voice is not identified.

An AI-generated deepfake video falsely depicted Turkish President Erdogan expressing support for jailed Pakistani politician Imran Khan. While the video went viral and garnered hundreds of thousands of views, it represents a minor national security threat that was quickly debunked, highlighting the ongoing but manageable challenge of political deepfakes.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Scope: Single nation
• Primary target: Pakistan
• Other affected: Turkey
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. Represents an ongoing strategic concern regarding the proliferation of political deepfakes rather than an active, imminent crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI system was used strictly as a tool by human actors who generated and distributed the synthetic audio.
• Novelty: Established threat. Political deepfakes and AI voice cloning of world leaders are established tactics in modern disinformation campaigns.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical security threats, kinetic attacks, or critical infrastructure compromises were reported in this incident.
• Information security: Minor. An AI-enhanced disinformation campaign used a deepfake of a foreign head of state to influence domestic political discourse, reaching over 490,000 views, but was quickly identified and debunked.
• Sovereignty: Minor. The deepfake falsely depicted a foreign head of state commenting on domestic political affairs, potentially impacting diplomatic relations and political discourse, but did not disrupt core government operations.
• Economic security: Negligible. No economic threats, strategic technology theft, or financial system manipulation occurred.
• Societal stability: Minor. The synthetic video manipulated public opinion regarding a highly sensitive political topic, potentially fueling polarization, though no civil unrest was reported.