Have you been seeing ads for an “airdrop” of the cryptocurrency XRP on platforms like YouTube and X over the past couple of months? They feature Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse explaining how people can receive XRP for free if they just send a particular crypto wallet some XRP first. But it’s all a scam using artificial intelligence to make it look like Garlinghouse is saying things he never actually said.
I first noticed the scam ads on YouTube back in November, which is unusual because the social media platform has a number of safeguards in place to protect against obvious scams. But recently I’ve been seeing the ad so much on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it’s seemingly taking up half of the ads in my feed.
The ads appear to use AI to make it look like Garlinghouse is saying things he didn’t say. And it’s somewhat convincing until you really look at his mouth and notice the lip movements don’t quite match what he’s saying.
Garlinghouse himself confirmed back in November that the ads are scams.
“There’s been an uptick in deepfake scam videos (ex below) overlaying new words with old video footage from Ripple’s events (@YouTube are you asleep at the wheel again?!). Reminder: don’t trust, verify (all approved messaging will only come from official Ripple accounts),” Garlinghouse tweeted on November 16, 2023.
New technologies that allow anyone to sample someone’s voice and create a video that makes it look like they’re saying things they never said have accelerated in recent years. And plenty of people are getting scammed by the ads, as you can see from testimonials of people who said they lost money on X.
