Taylor Swift’s love for Le Creuset is real: her collection of cookware has appeared on a Tumblr account dedicated to the pop star’s home decor, seen in the wedding gifts she gave to a fan, and in a Netflix documentary featured on Le Creuset’s Facebook page. However, the alleged endorsement of Swift’s products by the company, which have recently appeared in ads on Facebook and other media featuring her face and voice, is not real.
These ads are a part of the growing number of scams centered around celebrities that have become more convincing due to artificial intelligence. Within a single week in October, actor Tom Hanks, journalist Gayle King, and YouTuber Mr. Beast, claimed that they had been used without permission to promote suspicious dental plans, iPhone gift offers, and other ads using AI-generated versions of themselves. Swift herself had a synthetic version of her voice combined with images and videos of Le Creuset cookware in the ads. Her clonned voice directed her “swifties” to click a button and answer questions in order to receive the cookware before the end of the day.
Le Creuset denied any collaboration with the singer in any giveaway. The company urged buyers to check their official online accounts before clicking on suspicious ads. Representatives for Swift, who was named Time magazine’s person of the year in 2023, did not respond to requests for comment.
The use of celebrities in advertising has a long history, often without their intention. Just over three decades ago, singer Tom Waits sued Frito-Lay – and won nearly $2.5 million – after the potato chip company imitated his voice in a radio ad without permission. The Le Creuset scam campaign also involved fake versions of Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey, who in 2022 published a video expressing her annoyance at the prevalence of false ads on social media, emails, and websites claiming falsely that she endorsed weight loss gummies.
The advancements in artificial intelligence have made it very easy to create unauthorized digital replicas of real people, especially fake audio, which is easy to produce and difficult to identify. The Le Creuset scam was likely created with a text-to-voice conversion service. Dozens of similar Le Creuset scam ads, imitating the likes of Swift, Martha Stewart, and others, were visible on Facebook and TikTok, pushing users to pay a “small $9.96 shipping fee” for the promised kitchenware, followed by undisclosed monthly charges and no delivery.
The Better Business Bureau warned that these scams using AI-generated fake celebrities are “more convincing than ever”. Victims often face higher charges than expected and no product delivered. Banks have also reported financial fraud attempts using ultra-fake voice recordings or synthetic replicas of real people’s voices.
Several well-known figures have had to publicly distance themselves from ads in which their image or voice was manipulated by fake AI. Luke Combs and Lainey Wilson were among those who had to refute false ads circulating online, with Wilson slamming those who use AI to deceive for profit. Meanwhile, legislators have introduced bills to limit the harm of AI scams, but with no federal laws to address them, only some states currently regulate AI-generated content.
For now, Swift will likely continue to be subject to experiments with this technology. Synthetic versions of her voice regularly appear on TikTok, singing songs she never sang, criticizing critics, and even serving as ringtones. A website even offers personalized voice messages from the “AI Taylor Swift clone,” promising an indistinguishable replicated voice from the real one for $20.
