Israeli Government Shares AI Video With Images Resembling Rapper IAMDDB
The Israeli government shared an AI-generated video on social media that features images resembling IAMDDB, the Angolan-Portuguese rapper and singer, who says she did not agree to it. Rolling Stone reported that the posts have since been deleted.
A video that appeared to feature IAMDDB first surfaced on October 16. The song in it is titled "Jews From Judea (We Did)." Rolling Stone's reporting describes the clip as one built from AI-generated images, which are pictures or video made by software rather than filmed.
On October 20, IAMDDB published an official statement on Instagram about the account @stateofisrael using AI-generated versions of her. She said she did not consent to the video and had nothing to do with it. Euronews and The National also reported her response on October 21.
In the same statement, she said she stands for humanity and against the killing and suffering of innocent people. She also said she stands for every artist's right to decide how their own image and identity are used. She has always approached her music and art from a place of love, freedom, humanity and connection, she said.
The video's creator is Eyal Ben Moshe, an Israeli-born New Jersey resident who performs as Eyal Be. He told Rolling Stone that he was not paid by the Israeli government. He said a contact at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave him permission to post the song.
Ben Moshe also said he named the AI rapper "Nova," and that the video was the third to feature that character. The character's name and the earlier clips are his account.
IAMDDB told Rolling Stone that the lack of meaningful AI regulation, and of protection for artists' rights, is deeply concerning. Her point goes beyond one clip. Voice and image cloning tools can now produce a convincing version of a real person without that person in the room, and rules for that are still patchy in many countries.
For performers, the practical question is consent. A likeness, meaning a person's face, voice or other recognisable features, is the thing that makes them known to audiences. When it can be copied and posted by someone else, the artist has little say in where it ends up or what it is attached to.
The story is still developing.
