The video, which was apparently manipulated with artificial intelligence (AI) to recreate Swinney's voice, initially appears to show the new prime minister addressing MSPs live on Sky News.
These AI deepfake videos use “deep learning” to convincingly replicate a person’s appearance and voice.
In the fake video, the new SNP leader says: “Mr President, I would like to thank Nicola Sturgeon for ensuring that I was re-elected as Prime Minister.
— Majority (@themajorityscot) May 7, 2024
“We are committed to continuing to fuck this country for the foreseeable future. We will also ensure that every school in Scotland receives bananas and Nutella every day.
“I would also like to thank my predecessor Hamza. I know he will be upset because there is another white man in charge now, but I am reassured that this will not be the case. I want to
“To be clear, I am not white. I currently identify as a black Muslim woman and will be the first female minister in the Gaza Strip. Inshallah.”
At this point, the video cuts to Nicola Sturgeon sitting on the backbench as she imitates Swinney mocking him.
Read more: John Swinney becomes Scotland's 7th First Minister
The fake video was shared by a right-wing social media account with many followers and has been viewed more than 300,000 times.
The ultra-unionist fringe group Majority, GB News contributor Lee Harris and Spectator columnist Gareth Roberts also shared the video.
Professor Wendy Hall, who co-chaired the UK government's 2017 AI Review, said last week it was too late to protect this year's general election from the risk of misinformation being spread through AI.
A distinguished professor of computer science at the University of Southampton said: The media is thinking about this. To get people to think about where they got this information from and what is the source of this information.
“Because there is no time to amend the law or make major technical fixes before the election begins.”
An April survey found that more than half of IT professionals were concerned that AI-generated deepfakes could influence the outcome of the general election.
In a survey of employees in this field conducted by BCS, a certified IT institute, 65% said they were concerned that election results could be influenced by misleading AI-generated content. .
