48-hour diabetic medication: Physician warns of deepfake risk

CHENNAI: Senior diabetologist Dr. V Mohan has labeled as “fake” a video in which a person like him promises that a medication can cure diabetes in less than 48 hours. This highlights the potential for artificial intelligence (AI)-generated social media clips to become the next big health risk.
The Indian Medical Association of Tirunelveli’s Facebook accounts released a video that quickly gained popularity.

emblemThe speaker in the video is heard speaking in Hindi, which Mohan claims he has never learned. The commercial included a real-life footage of Mohan along with a modified voiceover that, according to analysts, was probably produced using artificial intelligence.
When Ranji Mohan brought this up to the cyber security unit of the Tamil Nadu police in November 2023, the video was taken down by the authorities. But it’s back again, the doctor claims.
Although the lip sync is awful, the voice really does sound like me. Many individuals he knows, including his own patients, have asked him if he may prescribe the medicine for them despite his post stating it is false. “Remission from diabetes is achievable. However, that is with medication, food, and exercise. There is no other miraculous cure imaginable,” he said. According to medical groups, there are an increasing number of these fraudulent films. Sometimes there aren’t any actual physicians.
Individuals dressed in white jackets or scrubs—mostly artificial intelligence (AI) bots—tell people that chiaseeds may lower blood sugar, that almonds with sugar candy and fennel-infused milk can heal “difficult-to-treat” brain illnesses, or that miraculous medications derived from plant cells can help people lose weight. “Thanks to AI, creating these fakes is now simpler and less expensive. These days, there are resources to make them quickly and frequently for free, even using smartphone applications.
However, these false statements pose a serious risk to public health. Dr. KM Abdul Hasan, president of IMA-TN, said, “There are speech cloning tools that can be trained to replicate voices in seconds.” “We feel it’s time to raise awareness among doctors and patients about these, and we will write to the government demanding prompt and stringent action,” Hasan said. IMA will discuss the matter in a meeting in Chennai shortly.