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Shriya Saran raises alarm over AI misuse: Almost every day I see a morphed picture that’s not me
Days after reporting someone impersonating her to cybercrime authorities, Shriya opens up her fake profiles and more
After Aditi Rao Haydari calling out a fake account who was impersonating her, actor Shriya Saran has faced a similar situation. Shriya opened up about a troubling incident in which an unknown person impersonated her and reached out to several of her colleagues. Speaking to HT City, the actor shares, “Everybody I know, or is on my Instagram feed, or I’ve spoken to, or I’ve tagged, or I’m following started writing to me saying that it doesn’t look like it’s you. Somebody’s trying to connect pretending to be you.
Shriya further explains that she has used the same phone number for nearly two decades, which made the situation even more surprising. While initially, she chose not to address it publicly because she did not want to “give unnecessary importance to somebody,” but the impersonator’s actions escalated pushing her to take drastic steps. “This guy just kept talking to people, asking and sending not-so-good messages, so it became something I had to address. It was getting out of hand,” says the 41-year-old.
Ask her if she has taken any legal action, and Shriya says that she reported the issue to cybercrime authorities and publicly clarified (see inset) that the messages circulating were not from her. Beyond that, however, she admitted there is little she can do to track whether the impersonator has stopped. “How would I know that? That’s a bit too much to go behind. We told the cybercrime, we told people it’s going on, and we’ve made it clear that it’s not me. I am just hoping no one gets fooled by the impersonator.”
Although people have used her name or WhatsApp profile picture in the past, Shriya said this was the first time someone impersonated her so directly. “This is not the first time someone has done this, but this is the first time I took a proper stand against it. This is no. or whatsap profile pic, but my that’s not all. There are so many morphes pictures of mine, which look so real. What can you really do? People are mad. You have to be careful, but beyond a point, if something is affecting other people, you have to address it.”
She adds, “Almost every day I see a picture of mine which is not me: somebody else’s body and my face, on my Insta feed. My family has to go through all this, sometimes they even get fooled with the AI images. It’s becoming difficult to distinguish between fake and real. Sometimes they do a good job and it’s really hard to tell. I’m like, ’Is it me?’ It looks so close to what I look like. That’s when the problem really comes because it can fool family and people I know.”
Shriya admits that she has come across many Instagram profiles using her photos alongside a fake blue-tick symbol meant to resemble verification. “I have a profile which says my name and something else, which looks verified. They just put a blue tick mark. Verification is also something people can just buy now. You don’t know, you will never know.” Despite other celebrities taking legal routes against such misuse, Shriya says she is unsure how far one can practically go. “There’s nothing you can really do. You can’t stop people from being stupid,” says the actor, adding that even her team has limited ability to prevent such incidents.
