Doc claims AI account stole her face and voice to hawk hair products

By Lauren Wilkin

A British doctor says her face and voice have been stolen by an AI Instagram account to sell haircare products.

Dr. Nicole James, 32, shares dermatology and haircare tips for the Black community on Instagram and TikTok under the handle @doctor.nicolej.

She was horrified to discover an account had stolen dozens of videos from her page, and used AI to change her accent to sound American, and age her face, before reposting the clips, to sell Lebanta hair products.

"It's absolutely dystopian and I'm furious," said Nicole, who worked as a junior doctor in Surrey, England, but now lives in Chicago.

The allegedly rogue account, called @amaragrows, has built over 20,000 followers with one video reaching a million views.

It uses her likeness and words from her videos, before tagging on an extra line on the end, urging followers to buy hair oil, Dr. James said.

One of her followers discovered it two weeks ago.

"I clicked on the video and at first I thought it wasn't me," she said.

"But as the video went on I realized it's word for word. I look at the background and it's in my room in my apartment in Chicago where I film my videos.

"When I look closer, I've seen that they've taken my face and aged me by about 20 years. It looks like my mom.

"At first it was almost so ridiculous that I found it funny, it was unbelievable, almost a bit laughable at first.

"But when I rewatched it and looked at the page and saw multiple videos that they've done that with, and I was furious.

"I found it extraordinarily dystopian. She's using my words and medical recommendations, but at the end she recommends this oil that links to this amazon company.

"So I created a video showing the side by side of how she's used my content and what she's promoting, and it turns out all of my followers had already seen the AI version of me.

"The account is already targeting the community I've built up over three years with real trust.

"I've been to medical school. I've earned that trust.

"You're taking my community and using it to sell something that doesn't work."

When Nicole reported the page, alongside many of her followers, nothing happened, she said.

Nicole and her family have been unable to get a reply when they contact the page owner.

"It's very infuriating, and makes me extremely angry because there is so much misinformation online," she said,

"Everyone is trying to sell different products. And as AI gets more sophisticated, it's only going to get worse."

Dr. James set up her real account in 2020 and has spent years building up a trusted following across social media.

"I'm a doctor by trade, and when I went to medical school I was very interested in dermatology," she said.

"But I was so confused as to why we weren't educated about skincare conditions on my skin tone. I'm a proud Black woman.

"How was I supposed to treat patients that looked like me? Medical school never addressed the issue and it means that Black and brown men and women don't get the same level of care that they deserve."

This inspired Nicole to set up her own skin and aesthetic clinic for the Black community — and that started by sharing her own medical advice and tips via her Instagram and TikTok accounts.

Nicole did her medical training in the U.K., but has since moved to Chicago to continue specializing in dermatology. Next month, she will be joining Stanford University as a research fellow.

While Nicole thinks the boom in "medfluencers" is a good thing — helping people get genuinely helpful, trusted advice — she believes it opens the door to people using AI to capitalize from genuine expertise.

Nicole fears that with the latest advancements in AI, eventually the account will use her exact face, rather than aging it.

"Then my followers won't know who the real Nicole is and that trust will be gone," she said.

Currently, there are no laws in place to stop people from using AI to replicate someone's likeness, and the few protection laws that do exist are extremely hard to enforce.

This has also posed consent problems as pornographic images and videos are being created using people's likeness without their permission.

Nicole did report the account for stealing her intellectual property, but no action was taken.

Lebanta and the Instagram account @amaragrows has been contacted for comment.