AI incident ·
Purported AI-Generated Video Depicts Trump Urging Release of Nigerian Separatist Leader Nnamdi Kanu
On this page 9 sections
In brief
An AI system built by Deepfake Technology Developers and Synthetic Audio Generation Technology Developers and deployed by Unknown Actors allegedly harmed Nnamdi Kanu, General Public Of Nigeria and 3 others.
- Risk domain
- Malicious Actors & Misuse
- Occurred
- Coverage
- 1 report
What happened
A reportedly AI-manipulated video circulated on social media that falsely portrayed U.S. President-elect Donald Trump calling for the release of Nigerian separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu and threatening sanctions against Nigeria. The video allegedly used old footage paired with AI-generated audio mimicking Trump's voice. Fact-checkers identified the video as inauthentic, noting mismatched lip-sync, fabricated quotes, and the fictitious date of "November 31st."
Laws on record for this risk area
Policy angle: Classified under Malicious Actors & Misuse (Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale) in the MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy; 5 instruments on record cover this risk area.
- India DPDP Act
- Law on Artificial Intelligence (2025)
- Law No. 132/2025 on artificial intelligence
- EU AI Act
- Texas Responsible AI Governance Act (TRAIGA)
Matched from the record's risk category and country to the instruments in effect recorded here: a law listed covers the area, which is not a finding that it applies to this incident. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).
News reports (1)
Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged deployer
- Unknown Actors
- Alleged harmed party
- Nnamdi Kanu, General Public Of Nigeria, Donald Trump, Democratic Integrity, Journalistic Integrity
Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)
- Risk domain
- Malicious Actors & Misuse
- Risk subdomain
- 4.1 Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale
- Causal entity
- AI
- Intent
- Intentional
- Timing
- Post-deployment
- Harm level
- —
- Sectors
- —
- Countries
- —
Risk entries describing this failure mode
Entries from the MIT AI Risk Repository coded to subdomain 4.1.
- Electoral interference
"Electoral interference - Generation of false or misleading information that can interrupt or mislead voters and/or undermine trust in electoral processes."
- Political and Economic
"Political and Economic - Manipulation of political beliefs, damage to political institutions and the effective delivery of government services."
- Coercion/manipulation
"Coercion/manipulation - Use of a technology system to covertly alter user beliefs and behaviour using nudging, dark patterns and/or other opaque techniques, resulting in potential erosion of privacy, addiction, anxiety/...
- Political manipulation
"Political manipulation - Use or misuse of personal data to target individuals’ interests, personalities and vulnerabilities with tailored political messages via micro-advertising or deepfakes/synthetic media."
- Political
"In the UK, a form of initial computational propaganda has already happened during the Brexit referendum1 . In future, there are concerns that oppressive governments could use AI to shape citizens’ opinions"
- Biased influence through citizen screening and tailored propaganda
"AI-powered chatbots tailor their communication approach to influence individual users' decisions. In the UK, a form of initial computational propaganda has already happened during the Brexit referendum. In future, there...
- Surveillance and Censorship
"Content moderation has emerged as one of the key use-cases of LLMs (Weng et al., 2023), indicating the potential of LLMs for surveillance and censorship as well (Edwards, 2023). Surveillance and censorship are one of th...
- Disinformation and manipulation of public opinion
"AI, particularly general- purpose AI, can be maliciously used for disinformation (351), which for the purpose of this report refers to false information that was generated or spread with the deliberate intent to mislead...
Incidents in the same risk subdomain
- Suspected AI-Generated Deepfake Video Reportedly Targeted Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Instagram
- Purportedly AI-Manipulated Satellite Image Reportedly Claimed Iranian Strike Destroyed U.S. Radar in Qatar
- Purported AI-Generated War Footage Reportedly Circulated Widely Online During the Opening Phase of the War in Iran
- Network of Allegedly Fake Facebook Profiles with Purportedly AI-Generated Images Amplified Posts by Bulgaria's 'There Is Such a People' (ITN) Party
- Purportedly AI-Generated Image Reportedly Circulated Ahead of Thai Election Depicting PM Anutin Charnvirakul Dining with Benjamin Mauerberger
- Purportedly AI-Altered Images Reportedly Distort Evidence After Minneapolis Shooting of ICU Nurse Alex Pretti
Other incidents involving Unknown Actors
- Alleged Marine Park Orca Attack on 'Jessica Radcliffe' Reportedly an AI-Generated Hoax
- Purported AI-Generated Audio Was Reportedly Used to Claim Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Expressed Support for Imran Khan in Pakistani Parliament
- Reported AI-Manipulated Video Depicts Donald Trump Endorsing Peter Obi and Criticizing Bola Tinubu
- Reported Doctored Video of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu Claims Naira Will Be Replaced by U.S. Dollar
Source record: incident #1035 on the AI Incident Database · all 1 report