In the latest deepfake scam using artificial intelligence, US secretary of state Marco Rubio has turned out to be the victim as his impostor sent fake voice messages and texts mimicking his voice and writing style to at least five senior officials including three foreign ministers, a US governor and a Congress member, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. While the impostor is at large, it is found that the aim was to "gain access to information or accounts" of powerful government officials. A probe has been initiated in the US over the breach of security and the incident has again brought the issue of AI impersonators into limelight. The recently held elections across different parts of the world including India and, US witnessed significant usage of AI, and incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared a video of an AI-generated video of him dancing during the poll campaign. Here's the list of world leaders who have been impersonated using AI, which subsequently made waves online and called for stricter measures over the use of the emerging technology: Trump shared fake AI image of himself as Pope Francis Following the death of Pope Francis, Donald Trump shared a fake, AI generated image of himself as the Pope. While sharing the image on his Truth Social account, Trump jokingly stated that he should succeed the late Pope. The photo depicted him sitting with a stern expression and holding up one finger clad in white and gold papal attire, including a large cross necklace. pic.twitter.com/x2HrR939tn— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 3, 2025 Amid heated election campaigns in the US, fake robocalls mimicking Joe Biden did rounds among New Hampshire voters. People were urged not to vote for his Democratic party and Steven Kramer, a Louisiana Democratic political consultant was indicted over the calls. The Federal Communications Commission imposed a $6 million fine on him later. The election campaign also witnessed former US Vice President Kamala Harris being spoofed, celebrating Biden's decision to withdraw from the poll battle. Trump's voice was also cloned, insulting the intelligence of Fox News viewers. Barack Obama In 2023, former US president Barack Obama's voice was cloned and he was heard defending himself against an explosive new conspiracy theory over the sudden death of his former chef. “While I cannot comprehend the basis of the allegations made against me,” the voice said, “I urge everyone to remember the importance of unity, understanding and not rushing to judgments.” The clip was published by one of 17 TikTok accounts pushing baseless claims. Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy As the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2022, deepfake videos spreading misinformation as rampant online. In one of the clips, Russian President Vladimir Putin declaring peace did rounds online and there was another video showing Ukraine's president talking of surrendering to Russia. Meta and YouTube took down the videos. Emmanuel Macron After deepfake videos featured French President Emmanuel Macron grooving to a 1980s euro disco hit and inserted into an influencer's hair tutorial and the action hero TV show MacGyver, Macron acknowledged that he had become a meme among online users and he shared it saying: "Its pretty well done, it made me laugh." The video was posted by Macron two days ahead of AI Action Summit in Paris in February this year and his post triggered debate in France whether Macron should be trivialising deepfake videos when they can be used for harm. In October, Macron told Variety deepfakes "can disinform, which can upset our democracies". He said they should be regulated "by imposing responsibility on the people who disseminate this content to moderate it". Rishi Sunak Last year, a slew of more than 100 deepfake video advertisements impersonating former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were paid to be promoted on Facebook, The Guardian reported. The ads had likely reached as many as 4,00,000 people, spending more than £12,929, from 23 countries including the US, Turkey, Malaysia and the Philippines. One of the ads featured faked footage of a BBC newsreader, Sarah Campbell, appearing to read out breaking news that falsely claims a scandal has surfaced involving Sunak secretly earning "colossal sums from a project that was initially intended for ordinary citizens”. The clip also contained false claim that Elon Musk had launched an application capable of "collecting" stock market transactions and followed by a doctored video of Sunak saying the government had decided to test the application, eventually leading to a spoofed BBC News page promoting a scam investment. With inputs from New York Times, The Guardian, The BBC
