WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Jewish celebrities feature in a video wearing T-shirts giving Kanye West the middle finger.
OUR VERDICT
False. The video was generated using AI.
AAP FACTCHECK - A video purportedly featuring some of the world's most famous Jewish celebrities wearing T-shirts that give rapper Kanye West the middle finger was generated using artificial intelligence (AI).
The video is being shared as if it's authentic although the pair who created it run a marketing company that specialises in AI and have given interviews explaining the video is a deepfake.
The video appears to feature celebrities, including Scarlett Johansson, Jerry Seinfeld, Mark Zuckerberg, Natalie Portman and Adam Sandler, who all wear T-shirts featuring a hand with a raised middle finger above the words "Kanye".
The hand is also emblazoned with the Star of David and the video ends with the words "Enough is enough" and "Join the fight against antisemitism".
A Facebook post sharing the video includes the caption: "Jewish actors response to the antisemite Kanye west (sic)".
However, the post was created using AI and without the permission of the celebrities featured.
It was created and posted by Ori Bejerano and Guy Bar, who run an AI-generation business called Elevaitor, based in Israel.
In posts sharing the video, they explained in Hebrew that it was in response to the recent comments and actions of West, who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021.
The 47-year-old rapper - who appeared to deactivate his X account after a stream anti-Semitic outbursts - returned to the platform on Thursday.
Those included him posting declarations of admiration for Adolf Hitler and self-identifying as a Nazi.
West's fashion brand Yeezy also aired an ad during the recent Super Bowl directing viewers to a website selling a T-shirt with a swastika on it.
When posting the video, Mr Bejerano and Mr Bar called for "social networks to stop giving a platform to anti-Semitism and hatred," according to a translation of the Hebrew text.
"We need to exert economic and public pressure and kick people like West off any platform for spreading their poison," the translated post said.
Mr Bar's post included a footnote that said the video was generated using the AI tools Grock, Kling, Sono and CapCut, while Mr Bejerano's post noted that the video was created or altered with AI.
In subsequent interviews with the Jerusalem Post and Yahoo News, the pair explained how they created the video using AI.
Mr Bar told Yahoo News the pair had not heard directly from any of those depicted in the video.
However Scarlett Johansson released a statement condemning the use of AI in the video, CNN reported.
While she said she had "no tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech of any kind", she disagreed with the use of AI to promote the message and called for greater regulation of the technology.
"We must call out the misuse of AI, no matter its messaging, or we risk losing a hold on reality," Johansson's statement said.
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