Fact-Checking Finds Reportedly AI-Generated Video Misattributed Hypertension Cure Endorsements to Taiwo Ajai-Lycett and Chinonso Egemba

Fact-checking reports that a purported AI-generated video circulated on Facebook depicting veteran actor Taiwo Ajai-Lycett discussing a hypertension diagnosis and promoting an unproven treatment by influencer Chinonso Egemba. According to the report, the video exhibited signs of AI generation, including unnatural speech and mismatched lip movements. Both Ajai-Lycett and Egemba have denied involvement, and no credible medical evidence supports the claimed cure.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 4 Malicious actors
• Primary risk subdomain: 4.3 Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

The incident involves a deepfake video impersonating public figures to promote a non-existent hypertension cure, which is an AI-enabled scam designed to deceive people for potential financial or personal gain.

Additional risk subdomains

• 3.1 False or misleading information: The video spreads false medical claims about a cure for hypertension, which could lead to health risks if believed.

Causal factors

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

The incident was caused by human actors who intentionally created and deployed a deepfake video using AI tools to mislead the public.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Limited Risk: The incident involves AI-generated content such as deepfakes, which falls under Risk Level 3 due to transparency obligations regarding synthetic media.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: None named
• AI purpose: Deepfake Video Generation; Voice Generation
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Unknown voice cloning technology developers, Unknown deepfake technology developers
• Alleged deployer: Unknown scammers, Scammers impersonating Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, Scammers impersonating Chinonso Egemba
• Alleged harmed parties: Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, People suffering from hypertension, General public, Fans of Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, Fans of Chinonso Egemba, Chinonso Egemba

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 Negligible
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Privacy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

Malicious content

Reported: The report explicitly describes malicious content created and spread directly by the incident.

Directly caused: An AI-generated deepfake video was created and uploaded to Facebook, falsely depicting two public figures promoting a fake hypertension cure.

Inferred additional harm: The deepfake may have been shared across other platforms or private messaging apps, expanding its reach beyond the reported 98,000 views on Facebook.

Epistemic

Reported: The report explicitly describes epistemic harm caused directly by the incident.

Directly caused: The video falsely claims that a cure for hypertension has been developed and that pharmaceutical drugs are ineffective, undermining public health facts.

Inferred additional harm: The spread of such medical deepfakes can erode public trust in legitimate medical professionals and pharmaceutical treatments, leading to broader epistemic confusion regarding health advice.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly harmed: 2
• People reportedly exposed: 98000

Potential causes

Management

• Ineffective Response to Repeat Scams: Platform failed to prevent recurring deepfakes targeting same influencer.

Technology

• AI Voice Cloning Technology: Generates highly realistic synthetic voices of public figures.
• Lip-Syncing AI Tools: Syncs synthetic voices with existing video footage of targets.

Data Inputs

• Publicly Available Media: Public videos of influencers provide ample training data for AI cloning.

Human Factors

• Public Trust in Influencers: Viewers trust medical influencers, making them vulnerable to scams.
• Low Digital Literacy: Users struggle to identify synthetic speech and lip-sync issues.

Process and Methods

• Inadequate Platform Moderation: Facebook failed to detect and block the synthetic scam video automatically.
• Missing Deepfake Detection: Social media lack active tools to flag AI-altered medical claims.

Regulatory Environment

• Lack of Deepfake Regulations: Absence of strict legal frameworks targeting AI impersonation scams.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report clearly identifies the video as a deepfake, details the platform (Facebook), the view count (98,000+), and the specific individuals impersonated. The facts are verified by Africa Check, leaving little ambiguity about the nature of the incident.
• Ambiguities identified: The specific AI tools used to generate the deepfake are not identified.
• Alternative interpretations: None. The video is clearly a synthetic scam.

A medical deepfake scam in Nigeria impersonated a doctor and actor to promote a fake hypertension cure. While posing localized public health risks and demonstrating the ongoing challenge of synthetic media, the incident has negligible national security implications and does not involve state actors or critical infrastructure threats.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Scope: Single nation
• Primary target: Nigeria
• Alleged perpetrator: Unknown

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. Represents a persistent, ongoing challenge with synthetic media scams rather than an immediate national security crisis requiring urgent intervention.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI was used as a tool by human creators to generate synthetic voice and video based on direct inputs, without autonomous decision-making.
• Novelty: Established threat. Deepfake scams and synthetic impersonations of public figures are established threats that have occurred frequently.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No threats to critical infrastructure, physical systems, or military capabilities. The potential health risks to individuals from fake medical advice do not constitute a national security physical threat.
• Information security: Minor. While the incident involves a deepfake, it is a commercial medical scam targeting public figures for fraud rather than a state-sponsored disinformation campaign targeting democratic institutions or national leadership.
• Sovereignty: Negligible. No impact on state authority, electoral processes, or core government decision-making.
• Economic security: Negligible. No threat to strategic industries, financial systems, or national technological advantages. Potential minor financial fraud against individual citizens does not scale to national economic security.
• Societal stability: Minor. The video spreads medical misinformation which could erode public trust in healthcare, but it does not represent systematic human rights violations, mass surveillance, or threat of civil unrest.