Media outlets around the world reported a man died after surgery to look like a K-pop star despite numerous red flags.

The news that Saint Von Colucci, a 22-year-old Canadian-Portuguese actor, singer, and songwriter with pull in South Korea’s entertainment scene, died after undergoing surgeries to look like a K-pop star set media abuzz.

Von Colucci was reported to have undergone 12 plastic surgeries, costing more than $200,000, to resemble BTS member Jimin and overcome discrimination “against his Western traits”. He was said to have recently secured a role in an upcoming Korean drama.

The only problem is that Von Colucci may have never existed.

A raft of evidence suggests he is the product of an elaborate hoax using artificial intelligence that fooled dozens of media outlets, stretching from the United States and Canada to the United Kingdom, South Korea, India, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The debacle appears to be the first known case of AI being used to trick media outlets en masse into spreading misinformation, heralding the dawn of a new era of computer-generated fake news.

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  • Huldra [they/them, it/its]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    This guy already exists for real but survived to become the most annoying transphobe on twitter rn, why did they need to hoax an AI version into existence?

    Like Oil London also literally picked Jimin to try and become, they didn't even change the kpop guy. How did journalists not pick up on the fact that this is already literally a guy who exists?

    He was already famous before and right now he's trying to become a detrans icon by not telling people that what he is detransitioning from is going back to being Bri'ish instead of Korean.

    • copgutz [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Thank you, I was going to say this is just a recycled Oli London storyline. This version's ending is better than the original though, considering.