Singapore — Progress Singapore Party chief Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s PR team has posted a video of him reacting to a slate of deepfake videos showing him “singing”.
Earlier, in now-deleted viral footage posted by video producer Adrian Chan, 16 politicians were shown lip-syncing to Baka Mitai (I’ve Been A Fool), the theme song from the Japanese anime, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.
The politicians featured included Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Workers’ Party leader Pritam Singh and WP members Jamus Lim and Raeesah Khan.
When shown a separate set of 3 deepfake videos that featured him singing to various Japanese and Chinese songs alone, Dr Tan appeared surprised.
“No, I don’t like it!,” Dr Tan said as he watched the videos.
According to AsiaOne, Dr Tan found the videos amusing yet disturbing.
“I’ve only just heard about deepfake tech, when I was shown a compilation of videos depicting pictures of me lip-syncing to some random songs, which I was told became popular fairly recently. They look funny, but are a little disturbing nonetheless, especially when the face of the ‘singer’ gets warped!”
Dr Tan ended with a warning on the importance of viewers being discerning when it comes to deepfake technology due to the possibility of fake news being spread.
Writing on Instagram, he said: “Reacting to the videos edited by my online friends. They call these ‘deep fakes’. Technology is too advanced”.
The PSP leader’s Instagram has been gaining popularity from before the recent General Election among the younger generation, earning him the mantle “Hypebeast Ah Gong”. /TISG