Italy's Meloni denounces deepfake photo as a political attack

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ROME (AP) — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday denounced the circulation of a deepfake photo of her — posing in bed, wearing lingerie — and complained that such artificial intelligence-created images were being used to attack her.

Meloni shared the photo in question on Facebook. She included with it an apparent post from someone named Roberto who apparently had himself shared it on social media with the commentary that Meloni should be “ashamed” of herself.

Meloni warned against sharing such images on social media without verifying them.

“Deepfakes are a dangerous tool because they can deceive, manipulate and target anyone. I can defend myself. Many others cannot,” she warned in her Facebook post.

It wasn't immediately clear if Meloni would report the incident to law enforcement, as she was urged to do by people commenting on her post. She acknowledged though that the photo manipulation “actually made me look a lot better.”

“But the fact remains that, in order to attack and fabricate lies, people will now use absolutely anything,” she wrote.

It’s not the first time that the likeness of Meloni, Italy’s first female premier, has made waves. In February, a minor church-state scandal erupted after a cherub bearing a striking appearance to Meloni appeared in a Roman church.

Then, Meloni made light of the manipulation.

“No, I definitely don’t look like an angel,” Meloni wrote on social media with a laughing/crying emoji alongside a photo of the work.