A YouTuber who produced and posted fake videos manipulated with artificial intelligence (AI) to look like police bodycam footage taken at 112 dispatch scenes has been arrested. The clips spread across several social media platforms in short-form format and are believed to have accumulated 30 million views.
The Northern Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency's cyber investigation unit said on the 2nd that it arrested a man in his 30s, identified as A, on charges including violating the Framework Act on Telecommunications. A is accused of uploading AI videos to his YouTube channel that were made to look like bodycam footage from real police scenes, including "cross-dressing man reported at women's changing room" and "video of arresting a rampaging Chinese national."
According to police, A wrote in the channel description that it was "AI content adapted from real events and unrelated to actual police," but did not include any notice on individual videos indicating they were AI-made. Police also said there are indications that watermarks revealing the videos were AI composites were removed.
The videos spread beyond YouTube to Instagram, TikTok and Facebook in short-form formats, surpassing a total of 30 million views, according to tallies. Most of the videos were reportedly made with Generative AI such as ChatGPT or Grok.
In addition to distributing fake videos, A is suspected of involvement in other crimes. Police said they detected indications that A participated in crimes related to unlicensed private futures trading or operating overseas futures investment "reading rooms," taking on a so-called "shill" role to attract victims' interest and receiving 30 million won. Police are also investigating allegations that A ran a paid subscription SNS channel and produced and sold pornographic material made with AI for money.