AI adds cruel twist to 'true crime' genre as social media platforms allow fake stories to flourish online

Across platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, creators documenting wholly invented crimes are attracting millions of views and misleading online audiences with fictitious tales.

Meanwhile, real cases are being distorted with AI-generated audio and images - twisting the knife as family and friends of victims attempt to grieve.

One example comes from a TikTok account called @spencersickarea, which posted a completely fabricated 999 call of a child who died of neglect.

Asiah Kudi was a 20-month-old girl who died after being left alone for six days in December 2019, while her mother, Verphy Kudi, travelled to celebrate her 18th birthday.

When Verphy returned to the property in Brighton, she phoned emergency services to say her daughter was unresponsive.

Asiah was later pronounced dead in hospital, and Verphy was sentenced to nine years in prison for manslaughter.

In the TikTok video, Asiah is heard calling for help - something that has been entirely fabricated, given the infant was too young to speak at the time of her death.

The fictitious audio of the young girl begging for her mum is not only highly distressing, but designed to grab the attention of audiences using raw emotion.

Yet, despite being fake, the video amassed over 700,000 views before TikTok confirmed to LBC that the video and audio had been removed.

Another example comes from the account @stories_untold1, who posted a video that has garnered more than 19 million views.

This video explores the “most evil lady that ever lived” - a supposed serial killer named Jenny Talia, from Nebraska, who lived during the 1940s.

The video uses AI-generated images of Jenny, her supposed home, and fictional victims, to construct a detailed narrative about a 1940s serial killer in Nebraska.

None of it is true.

Yet with more than one million likes, the story has circulated widely under the guise of a genuine tale of true crime.

True crime has always blurred the line between storytelling and journalism, but AI now makes the genre more vulnerable to audience who believe falsified or exaggerated narratives.

Additionally, those connected to real cases could also be retraumatised by witnessing such content.

Young people are “particularly vulnerable” to misinformation, according to Timothy Caulfield, a law professor at the University of Alberta.

“Not because they are less smart. It’s because of exposure,” he says. “They are completely and constantly bombarded with information,” he told the Financial Times.

In response to LBC request for comment, TikTok confirmed it has removed the video and audio in the Asiah Kudi video and labelled the fake serial killer video as AI-generated media.

The tech organisation highlighted that as per Community Guidelines, harmful AIGC content is not allowed on their platform.

The firm added that they require creators to label all AI-generated content that contains realistic images, audio, and video.