Woman finds Harvard student’s profile, then notices small detail that convinces her it’s impersonating her
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Imagine scrolling through TikTok and coming across a profile where the person is having the same experiences as you. You find them relatable, so you consume more of their content, only to realize they’ve been using your images, modified with AI, to impersonate you all along. This happened to Jenny (jenyyng), who documented her experience in a TikTok video.
“I’m taking a break from studying, so I was scrolling. I see this, and I’m like, ‘Day of my life as a student at Harvard.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, hi. That’s me.’ And I’m like, ‘She’s gorgeous. So let me keep scrolling.’” Jenny said at the opening of her video, scrolling through her profile, which shows Chloe as the profile name.
Then she revealed that, as she moved to the next slide on her profile, she saw an image of herself purportedly sitting in a class at Harvard and immediately identified the bag in front of her, along with some other items. “That looks like my bag, and that looks like my Stanley. And that looks like. It’s like my straw lid. And this looks like a class I took,” Jenny said.
However, she added that despite the stark similarities, she decided to give her the “benefit of the doubt” since the class was common for freshmen. However, when she went to her next post, she once again noticed eerie similarities between Chloe’s post and herself. This time, Chloe was posing in front of a plate of food that resembled what Jenny had eaten before. “But I saw what she was eating, and I was like, wait, that looks like something I’ve eaten. This exact arrangement. The noodles, the cake, the veggies over here,” she said.
Next, Jenny came across a picture where Chloe was studying, and everything was copied from Jenny’s photograph to a T, except her face. She said in disbelief, “This is literally my math homework. That’s my pen. That’s my computer. Oh, my god.” Jenny also showed her original photo for comparison. To top it off, Chloe’s account also shared a post claiming it was her view from her Harvard dorm room, but it was Jenny’s.
“Immediately clocked”
Jenny’s experience feels like something straight out of a Black Mirror episode, and the people in the comments seem to agree. Some people weighed in on how serious the situation is. One person said, “I can’t imagine how weird this must have felt for you as each slide came up – super creepy!” Another wrote, “Omg that’s why I’m scared to post. I don’t want AI stealing my content to scam people.”
A few said they figured out the posts on Chloe’s account were AI from the start. One person commented, “immediately clocked it was AI.” Another remarked, “That 1st slide is so obviously ai what is the point of those posts? Why do ppl do that? it’s sooo weird!”
In a follow-up video, Jenny told her viewers that Chloe’s account was either blocked or removed, sharing a screenshot indicating the account was no longer accessible. However, a quick search reveals that Chloe’s account and the series of impersonation posts Jenny flagged were still active.
Jenny’s case underscores a major concern in our advancing tech world, especially with AI. It raises important questions about identity theft and whether some individuals are willing to overlook ethical boundaries for personal gain. But it also raises an important question: how much can we push our limits before it becomes too much to handle?
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