This clip shows a snippet of a video game advert, not an 'artificial woman made in China'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on May 11, 2023 at 14:56
3 min read
By AFP Brazil
Translation and adaptation Mary KULUNDU

Online users in West Africa have shared a video with claims that it shows an “artificial woman” made and sold in China. But AFP Fact Check found this to be false: the clip, which has drawn hundreds of views, features an advert for an American video game developed by the Quantic Dream studio and released in May 2018.

On April 30, 2023, a Nigerian Facebook page called “Ify beauty” shared a video of an interview with a “robot”.

“Artificial woman, made in China* has been released into the Chinese market. The body flesh is made of 100% Fanta Flesh material with silicon parts (sic),” reads the post, which also claims the purported robot is priced at 200,000 rupees (about $2,450).

The post further claims that plans are underway to sell the android in India.

The video also features a female narrator – speaking with a Nigerian accent – who says the “artificial woman” can serve as a wife, nanny, housekeeper, and gatekeeper.

A screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken on May 9, 2023

The same claim was repeated by other Nigerian Facebook accounts (here, here and here) as well as in French, Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries.

It surfaced online days after the Chinese state media People’s Daily unveiled (archived here) a news anchor powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

According to local media, the unveiling of the AI presenter went viral on Chinese social media platform, Weibo, under the hashtag “AI virtual anchor”, attracting more than 78 million views (archived here).

However, the video claiming to show an “artificial woman” has no links to China or a new robot. AFP Fact Check found it was a promotional clip for a video game released in 2018.

Video game

Using the video verification tool InVID WEVerify, we conducted reverse image searches on multiple keyframes and located a longer version of the clip posted on PlayStation Europe's YouTube channel on May 23, 2018 (archived here).

The YouTube video, titled “Detroit: Become Human | Chloe | PS4”, is captioned: “Meet the very first personal assistant android built by Cyberlife. Say hello to Chloe”.

According to PlayStation's website, “Detroit: Become Human” is an adventure video game released in 2018 and developed by Quantic Dream, which also features it on its website.

AI-powered robots

Humanoid robots are not a new phenomenon but there is no evidence of their commercialisation so far.

In 2017, Chinese researchers from the University of Science and Technology in Heifei unveiled (archived report) the country’s first human-like robot named Jia Jia.

Team leader Chen Xiaoping predicted that perhaps within a decade, AI robots like Jia Jia would begin performing a range of menial tasks in Chinese restaurants, nursing homes, hospitals and households.

“In five to 10 years there will be a lot of applications for robots in China,” he said.

There have been several AI-powered robots around the globe including Sophia, launched in 2016, news presenter Fedha in Kuwait, Indian virtual presenter Sana and Tang Yu, Chinese CEO of Fujian NetDragon Websoft.

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