The key facts

  • Israel's official accounts published an AI video featuring a woman resembling IAMDDB; the video was deleted
  • The singer said she never consented to the use of her likeness and issued an official statement
  • The resemblance was discovered by activist Rafael Shimunov via a 2018 press photo for Crack magazine

Accusations of likeness theft

Anglo-Portuguese rapper and singer IAMDDB (real name Diana Adelaide Rocha de Brito), who lives in Manchester, accused Israel's official social media account, which is run by the country's government, of 'stealing' her identity in an AI-generated propaganda video. The now-deleted video was posted on Israel's official pages and showed a woman strikingly resembling the musician, delivering the lines: 'Colonizers? Name them by their name. Jews from Judea, it's in the very name, the same letters in Hebrew, the same culture, the same prayers remain.'

Origin of the video and discovery of the resemblance

According to Manchester Evening News, the AI video was created by director Eyal Be, an Israel-born filmmaker working in New Jersey. The video was captioned: '“Go back to where you came from!” We did.' Activist Rafael Shimunov noticed the resemblance and found a press photograph of IAMDDB from a 2018 shoot for Crack magazine, in which she is dressed almost identically to the woman in the video. On X he wrote: 'Nothing is funnier than Israel stealing the identity of a British singer with Angolan and Portuguese roots to create a fake Israeli woman in an AI video about indigeneity. Her name is IAMDDB.'

The singer's reaction

At first IAMDDB responded on X: 'Well hello, so yes — why did you steal my identity for something I did not 100% consent to?' She then issued an official statement: 'I have become aware that AI-generated images resembling me were used in a video posted by the official account of the Israeli government. I want to state unequivocally: I did not permit, endorse, participate in, or consent to the use of my likeness in this video. I have no connection whatsoever to its creation or its message.'

The artist's position and the question of AI use

In her statement, IAMDDB emphasized that she approaches her art 'from a place of love, freedom, humanity,' does not support 'genocide, the killing of innocents' or the suffering of women, children and families, and that her heart is 'with the Palestinian people, who have endured unimaginable suffering.' She said she had previously performed in Israel, 'before the awareness or understanding of the situation that I have today,' and that 'that performance cannot be seen as an endorsement of the actions of any government, past or present.' She also expressed concern about the use of AI: 'I am consulting and considering possible steps to protect my image, my work and my rights.' The statement ended with the words: 'My image belongs to me. My voice belongs to me. My values belong to me. Free Palestine.'