Incident 174: Fake LinkedIn Profiles Created Using GAN Photos

Description: More than a thousand inauthentic LinkedIn profiles using allegedly GAN-generated photos were notified by researchers at Stanford to LinkedIn’s staff, and many of which were removed for violating rules against creating fake profiles and falsifying information.

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Alleged: unknown developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed LinkedIn users.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
174
Report Count
4
Incident Date
2022-02-28
Editors
Sean McGregor, Khoa Lam
That smiling LinkedIn profile face might be a computer-generated fake
npr.org · 2022

At first glance, Renée DiResta thought the LinkedIn message seemed normal enough.

The sender, Keenan Ramsey, mentioned that they both belonged to a LinkedIn group for entrepreneurs. She punctuated her greeting with a grinning emoji before p…

Researchers find 1,000 LinkedIn profiles using computer-generated faces
siliconrepublic.com · 2022

It has been reported that the profiles were used for marketing and sales purposes.

An investigation by researchers at Stanford Internet Observatory uncovered more than 1,000 LinkedIn profiles using facial images that appear to have been cre…

Move Over Global Disinformation Campaigns, Deepfakes Have a New Role: Corporate Spamming
gizmodo.com · 2022

Have you ever ignored a seemingly random LinkedIn solicitor and been left with a weird feeling that something about the profile just seemed…off? Well, it turns out, in some cases, those sales reps hounding you might not actually be human be…

Deepfakes Invade LinkedIn: Delhi Firm Offers ‘Ready to Use’ AI Made Profiles
thequint.com · 2022

LinkedIn reportedly says it has investigated and removed those profiles that broke its policies.

Deepfake technology involves using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate convincing images or videos of made-up or real people. It is surpri…

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.

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