DeepfakeHigh
Tennessee Meteorologist's Likeness Reportedly Used in Sextortion Campaign Involving Purported AI-Generated Content
- Occurred
- Jan 10, 2025
- Published
- May 1, 2025
- Source
- AI Incident Database
Summary
Bree Smith, a meteorologist in Nashville, Tennessee, was reportedly targeted in a sextortion campaign involving purported AI-generated deepfakes that manipulated her likeness into explicit content. According to reporting, Smith's face was digitally placed onto semi-nude and nude bodies, with the resulting media circulated online by impersonators seeking money. Smith documented the spread of these accounts and has advocated for legislative responses, including a new Tennessee bill addressing deepfake-related harms.
Developers
- Deepfake technology developers
Deployers
- Unknown sextortionists
- Cybercriminals
Harmed parties
- WTVF
- NewsChannel 5 Nashville WTVF
- General public of Tennessee
- General public
- Bree Smith
- Epistemic integrity
Tags
- deepfake
- sextortion
- synthetic media
- identity theft
- impersonation
- harassment
- social media platforms
- platform abuse
- emotional harm
- public figure
- advocacy response
- Tennessee
- legal response
- women targeted by AI
- online abuse
- public policy impact
- retroactive
- syndicated
- Instagram post
- YouTube video
Classification
Category confidence: 95%
Severity confidence: 90%
Rationale: AI-generated deepfakes used for sextortion constitute a serious harm involving non-consensual synthetic media.
Classifier: Qwen/Qwen3.5-35B-A3B-FP8