Description: In April 2023, a reportedly fake audio message impersonating U.S. Ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey circulated on Sudanese social media. Reportedly produced using AI voice-cloning tools, the message portrayed the ambassador outlining strategies to impose secularism through U.S. support. Researchers attribute the clip to Islamist-linked networks seeking to undermine Western and civilian influence during the ongoing civil conflict. The message was quickly identified as inauthentic.
Editor Notes: The purported AI-generated audio impersonating U.S. Ambassador John Godfrey appears to have circulated in mid-April 2023, amid the early stages of Sudan's civil conflict. The Daily Mail report dated 04/27/2023 refers to the audio already being in public circulation, suggesting a likely origin between April 15–25 (04/15/2023 is this incident ID's date). The clip was reportedly disseminated via Islamist-aligned social media accounts as part of an influence campaign seeking to frame U.S. actions as secular interference. This incident ID was created on 05/31/2025. Please refer to Incident 1089 for wider context.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Unknown voice cloning technology developer and Unknown deepfake technology developer developed an AI system deployed by Sudanese Islamist digital propaganda networks, which harmed United States-Sudan relations , John Godfrey and General public of Sudan.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Unknown voice cloning technology and Unknown deepfake technology
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1088
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2023-04-15
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
Sudan's Islamists are out of favor and out of power after once being the force behind the country's military rulers.
But they are now using sophisticated social media networks and AI to try to worm their way back to a position of influence…
n April 2024, an image of a building engulfed in flames went viral on Facebook in Sudan. The image was widely shared with captions that claimed the building was part of Al-Jazeera University in Wad Madani city, and the Sudanese army had bom…
Variants
A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
