HISPI Project Cerebellum HISPI PROJECT CEREBELLUM

Deepfakes on TikTok Promote Misleading Myopia-Reversal Eyedrops: An AI Misuse Case

July 15, 2025

Optometrist and online educator Joseph Allen ('Dr. Eye Health') discovered AI-generated deepfakes using his likeness and voice promoting eyedrops that falsely claimed to reverse myopia on TikTok. These misleading videos, part of a potential scam, reportedly distorted Allen's views and dissuaded eye care consultations. Despite takedown efforts, the deepfakes resurfaced online.

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Alleged deployer
unknown-scammers
Alleged developer
unknown-voice-cloning-technology-developers, unknown-deepfake-technology-developers
Alleged harmed parties
people-seeking-medical-advice, joseph-allen, followers-of-dr.-eye-health, epistemic-integrity, dr.-eye-health

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Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1455

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.