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Fran Lu

Chinese women are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) generated footage of vagabonds at their homes to test how much their partners love them.
The unusual trend has sparked concerns over the abuse of AI-generated content.
On mainland social media platforms, several women said that they asked AI to generate images and videos of homeless men inside their room and send the footage to their husband or boyfriend.
Some also generated a set of images and made up a story of them seeing a homeless person outside their door and inviting him in for some food.

They did so to test how much their partner cared about them. Some videos went viral, receiving more than 400,000 likes.
On October 17, a woman in eastern China’s Anhui province sent such images to her husband, who was out dining with his friends.
The man thought it was real and called the police.
Police officers went to their home, only to discover that the images she sent to him were generated by AI.
They told the woman that she was “fear mongering” and “wasting public resources”.
In another October post, a woman said she would “never try AI homeless pranks again” because her partner asked for help from the property management staff, who came to her door to check on her.

Another said that a woman in their neighbourhood played the same prank in a group chat, and a neighbour called the police who punished her for disseminating false information.
Lawyer Zhou Zhaocheng told the mainland media outlet Legal Daily that the AI homeless pranks that lead to their family calling the police constitute a crime.
According to the Public Security Administration Punishment Law, people who do such things can face 10 days in custody and a 500-yuan (US$70) fine.
If the footage circulates and causes widespread panic, the responsible person also commits the crime of fabricating false information and could face imprisonment of up to five years.
Many people criticised the prank on mainland social media.
“Have you not heard the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf? If you raise false alarms too many times, people will not believe you when real danger happens,” said one person.

“How desperate for love are these people to play such a prank on their partners?” said another.
While a third said: “AI has brought convenience to our life, but at the same time it also generated a crisis of trust. The platform should take responsibility to regulate AI content.”
AI-generated content is increasingly used in advertisements.
There have been such videos made of Chinese Olympic champions Quan Hongchan and Sun Yingsha selling eggs allegedly from Quan’s hometown, and videos of famous television host Li Zimeng selling fish oil pills that were in fact sweets.
On October 16, the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation said it had punished the seller of the fish oil pills in the first case of its kind in the city.


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People & Culture

Police slam homeless home invader prank describing it as ‘fear mongering’ as calls mount for greater regulation of AI-generated content


Police slam homeless home invader prank describing it as ‘fear mongering’ as calls mount for greater regulation of AI-generated content.


China wives use AI-generated videos of homeless men breaking into homes to test husbands’ love

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Police slam homeless home invader prank describing it as ‘fear mongering’ as calls mount for greater regulation of AI-generated content

Police slam homeless home invader prank describing it as ‘fear mongering’ as calls mount for greater regulation of AI-generated content