Liu Xiaoqing's Image and Voice Cloned in AI-Generated Video Account
An AI-generated video account named "晓庆人生" (Xiaoqing's Life) falsely impersonated Chinese actress Liu Xiaoqing, using deepfake technology to recreate her likeness and voice. Liu Xiaoqing discovered the account on March 3, 2025, confirming the videos showed her image and a voice mimicking hers, but stated they were not authentic.
What happened
On March 3, 2025, Liu Xiaoqing discovered a video account called '晓庆人生' (Xiaoqing's Life) that had posted numerous videos using AI to recreate her image and voice.
Liu Xiaoqing confirmed in a statement: 'The visuals are me, the voice sounds like me, but it is not me.' The account's videos received significant engagement, with the highest-ranked video reaching 78,000 likes.
As of the reporting date, the video account could no longer be found through search.
Reported impact
Liu Xiaoqing expressed concern about the inability to distinguish the authentic from the deepfaked versions, saying 'in the future, people won't be able to tell which is the real me.'
Index analysis
The incident is part of a broader pattern of AI-generated impersonations of public figures in China. Other victims mentioned include entrepreneur Lei Jun, actor Liu Dehua, and doctor Zhang Wenhong, who have all had their images or voices synthetically recreated without authorization.
Deepfake and voice-cloning software is available online with varying levels of technical sophistication. Some versions are semi-professional tools requiring parameter adjustment, while others are accompanied by tutorial streams teaching users how to operate them.
Governance controls
In February 2025, China's Cyberspace Administration announced a 'Clean Internet' series of special actions for 2025, which specifically targeted the abuse of AI technology, focusing on management of AI technology and information content, strengthening labeling of synthetic content, and combating the generation and distribution of false information using AI.
Legal experts noted that unauthorized deep synthesis and creation of another person's video or voice constitutes infringement and violates personality rights protections under China's Civil Code. China has already adjudicated its first case of AI-generated voice personality rights infringement, in which a voice actor's voice was sold without authorization after being synthesized by AI.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
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