Brand 'uses AI video' of influencer ‘promoting’ product without permission - and she’s spooked

The power of AI is terrifying, and in a world where deepfakes are now rife, it's hard to know what to believe.

One woman who's learnt exactly that over the last few weeks is Arielle Lorre, a beauty influencer who claims that a skincare brand has made an AI video using her images claiming to be promoting their product - without her knowledge.

Lorre, 39, blew up on TikTok when she began showing viewers how she'd managed to ditch Botox and keep her skin looking like she was in her twenties through the power of a good skincare routine.

However, she was was alarmed to see an ad popping up on people's feeds with a video that looked and sounded exactly like her claiming she "swears" by a certain brand to get the glass skin effect - except, she says she's never used that brand before, wasn't paid, and never filmed that video.

"This is going to be a huge problem in the future and it could happen to anybody and it's going to get so much worse", she told viewers in a video addressing the details of what had happened with the brand, who she identified as Skaind Official.

According to their website, Skaind uses 'Korean technology' and is 'recommended by doctors', specialising in 100 per cent natural and vegan skincare.

"Last week people started sending me this podcast interview of me sitting down talking about skincare... raving about this one specific product I was using", she began. "The entire podcast of me promoting this product was digitally manipulated by this company."

She went on to show a side-by-side comparison of the videos and photos that had been used as references versus the outcome which looked and sounded just like her.

Lorre claims she reached out to the brand, and shared screenshots of their response, which claims their "marketing team accessed this content through an artificial intelligence platform without being aware it was a recognized person or with image rights."

TikTok

However, she casted doubt over the claim, adding that the brand had used b-roll footage from other videos she had posted on social media as part of the clip.

What's more, the man who also stars opposite the AI version of Lorre in the fake podcast has now weighed-in, claiming he also never agreed to being part of it, and that he too had been digitally manipulated.

"For everyone else I’m the guy in the video—but it’s not me. Arielle and I have never met. The account behind the video blocked me as well. It’s a nightmare", he wrote in the comments.

Lorre says she sent the brand a cease and desist, but has since been blocked.

Indy100 reached out to Skaind directly, and they told us the following:

"As a global brand, we work with various marketing teams and external agencies across different regions. In this particular case, the content creation for the U.S. market was handled by an external agency, which used AI tools to generate visual assets. According to the agency, the image was sourced from an online platform that provides AI-generated avatars marketed as copyright-free and available for commercial use.

"At no point was there any intent to associate ourselves with a known public figure or to use someone’s likeness without consent. In fact, the team was unaware that the image resembled a real creator, and they did not know she was a public personality.

"As soon as we were contacted by the creator, the content was taken down immediately. The video was live for less than 24 hours, and although it may still appear briefly due to Meta’s ad processing timelines, it is being fully removed from all platforms.

"We want to emphasize that we have since terminated our relationship with the agency involved and are implementing internal safeguards to ensure this does not happen again. We also reached out directly to the creator to explain what happened and express our sincere apologies."

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