Topics: US News, Donald Trump, Politics, News, Canada, Sport, Olympics, Artificial intelligence, Social Media
Team USA Olympic hockey player Brady Tkachuk has spoken out after the White House posted an AI-generated video of him insulting Canadians.
The White House's official TikTok account, which boasts over 5.3 million followers, shared the short clip earlier this week, and it has since racked up more than 11.2 million views.
The post showed a deepfake edit of Tkachuk trash-talking the Canadian team, who they won gold against with a 2-1 victory over the weekend (22 February), appearing to say: "They booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple-syrup-eating-f*cks a lesson. Canada, we own you, lil bro."
The post was captioned: "Silver does NOT shine just as bright."
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At the bottom of the video, an app disclaimer notes that it 'contains AI-generated media' with the clip appearing to be edited from footage from one of Tkachuk’s press conferences.
While Tkachuk claimed Olympic gold with the US men’s team on Sunday, he earns his living north of the border as captain of the Ottawa Senators in the National Hockey League.
The athlete has made clear that the White House's post does not reflect his own view.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday (26 February), he said via CNN: "It’s clearly fake, because it’s not my voice and not my lips moving,” Tkachuk said. “I’m not in control of any of those accounts and, uh, yeah so, I know that those words would never come out of my mouth, so can’t do anything about it."
When asked directly whether he liked it, Tkachuk responded: "I would never say that. That’s not who I am, so yeah, I guess I don’t like that video."
"If you watch the video, that’s not my voice and something that I never say, and I don’t really know how that, kind of, took a storm on its own when I play here and give everything I have here," Tkachuk said. "That’s something that - never a thought would happen in my head, and especially would never say it."
Thousands upon thousands have since rushed in to slam the White House over the post with one TikTok user writing: "The WHITE HOUSE is posting AI deepfakes???? Good lord pray for us."
"Crazy how they had to use AI," penned a second as a third chimed in: "'We own you', it’s your first time winning a gold medal in men’s Olympic hockey in 46 years."
Another lamented: "Would you expect anything else from a Trump government?"
And a final TikToker added: "Ikr? Like everything the government is supposed to warn the people about and attempt to protect them from. Instead, they’re INSTIGATING and PROMOTING fake news!!! Omg."
Tyla has reached out to the White House for comment.
