AI voice cloning used to impersonate Olympic athletes for product endorsements in China
Chinese bloggers used AI voice cloning technology to impersonate Olympic athletes including Quan Hongmei, Sun Yingsha, and Wang Chuqin to sell locally-raised eggs on social media platforms. Consumers mistook the synthetic voices for the real celebrities and made purchases. The incident prompted Chinese regulators to issue new standards requiring clear labeling of AI-generated content effective September 2025.
What happened
Bloggers used AI voice cloning to impersonate Olympic champions Quan Hongmei, Sun Yingsha, and Wang Chuqin to sell locally-raised eggs on a social platform. In a video, the AI-cloned voice of Quan Hongmei said: 'I am Chanbao, today I need your help. Chanmei wants to help mom, make life better at home, and share hometown eggs with fans. Today mom has 300 orders of hometown eggs to offer as a promotion.'
Commenters mistook the AI-generated voice for the real athlete and placed orders. Bloggers also cloned the voice of actor Jin Dong for 24-hour voice livestreaming.
Online platforms offered tutorials and software for AI voice cloning, with vendors stating that any person's voice could be cloned with just one minute of audio material.
Reported impact
Consumers were deceived into purchasing products believing they were endorsed by the actual celebrities.
The athletes' identities and reputations were used without consent for commercial gain.
Index analysis
The incident exemplifies broader issues with inadequate platform moderation and the ease of accessing AI voice cloning tools online.
Governance controls
China's National Internet Information Office and three other government departments released the 'Methods for Marking AI-Generated Synthetic Content' to regulate AI-generated content. Service providers must add explicit labels to text, audio, images, videos, and virtual scenes, and include hidden identification in file metadata. The regulation takes effect on 1 September 2025.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.