KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Actor and director Datuk Aaron Aziz has filed a police report against four social media accounts for using his voice, generated by Artifical Intelligence (AI) to promote the sale of t-shirts.
The 48-year-old has also filed a report with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commision (MCMC) and the case is currently under investigation.
Aaron said that he filed the reports on the first day of Ramadan on March 11 and he is still waiting for updates.
“This is unlike a normal crime case — after submitting my report at the police station, I was then referred to MCMC to submit another report.
“It’s a very tedious process as they need some time to track down the (scammers) IP addresses.”
Aaron first noticed the video on TikTok where the irresponsible parties had used his AI-generated voice along with a photo of him to sell polo t-shirts on the platform.
After reaching out to them to warn them, the videos were removed, but have been resurfacing again of late.
He also sent a representative to the t-shirt manufacturers but was told that the offenders were operating through many agents and affiliates.
“They were selling the t-shirts for RM1. It doesn’t make sense and it is my name that is affected as people think I’m the one selling it.
“Hopefully we could see faster action from MCMC, maybe they can put together a special unit to tackle these kinds of cases.
“Because it’s not just me, other figures such as Ustaz Azhar Idrus had also been used by the scammers previously to sell kain pelikat.”
Apart from Aaron, other local celebrities who faced similar experiences includes singer Datuk Seri Siti Nurhaliza where her AI-generated voice was used to sell products online.
