Popular influencer and Muslim convert used AI to create fakes of supposed charity work overseas: probe
An Australian burlesque dancer-turned-Muslim-influencer who runs a massively popular Instagram page about her faith and philanthropy used AI to create fake videos of her supposed charity work in needy communities overseas, according to a probe.Blond-haired, blue-eyed Lily Jay, 31, traded her tap shoes for a hijab and started an Instagram page waxing poetic about her conversion to Islam and the power of giving as she solicited donations from her 3 million followers for various charitable causes.
The influencer, whose real name is Lily Jay Hinson, claimed to have opened an orphanage in Uganda and a bakery in Gaza through the “Lily Jay Foundation,” but videos she posted of her humanitarian efforts in each location were created using AI and no evidence of either the orphanage or bakery exists, according to an investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s News Verify.In a clip promoting the opening of the foundation’s orphanage in Uganda, African children waving lollipops and cheering surround Hinson, who cheerfully tells the camera: “Alhamdullilah! The orphanage is now open!”But the “Lily Jay Foundation” sign on the orphanage building disappears at one point in the video and the children’s fingers are distorted at another point, suggesting the use of AI, the ABC investigation found.
In a clip reportedly taken in Gaza, the “Lily Jay Foundation” banner was added in and its corner unnaturally cuts out over her arm, suggesting digital superimposition, the outlet found.The foundation claims it founded a bakery in the war-torn enclave to supply much-needed food.ABC wasn’t able to find a registration for the orphanage in Uganda — which is required by law — or any independent proof that it exists and no government or aid workers in Uganda had heard of it.
The outlet found the same thing to be true of the Gazan bakery.Its reporters couldn’t geolocate it or find any evidence that it was real.
In another post, the foundation shared ph...