‘Chinese social media turned me from Ukrainian to Russian’

But the ramifications of Olga’s case stretch far beyond China – it demonstrates the difficulty of trying to regulate an industry that seems to be evolving at break-neck speed, and where regulators are constantly playing catch up. But that doesn’t mean they’re not trying.

In March, the European Parliament approved the AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive framework for constraining the risks of the technology. And last October, US President Joe Biden announced an executive order requiring AI developers to share data with the government.

While regulations at the national and international levels are progressing slowly compared to the rapid race of AI growth, we need “a clearer understanding of and stronger consensus around the most dangerous threats and how to mitigate them”, says Ms Blomquist.

“However, disagreements within and among countries are hindering tangible action. The US and China are the key players, but building consensus and coordinating necessary joint action will be challenging,” she adds.

Meanwhile, on the individual level, there seems to be little people can do short of not posting anything online.

“The only thing to do is to not give them any material to work with: to not upload photos, videos, or audio of ourselves to public social media,” Ms Hine says. “However, bad actors will always have motives to imitate others, and so even if governments crack down, I expect we’ll see consistent growth amidst the regulatory whack-a-mole.”

Olga is “100% sure” that she will not be the last victim of generative AI. But she is determined not to let it chase her off the internet.

She has shared her experiences on her YouTube channel, and says some Chinese online users have been helping her by commenting under the videos using her likeness and pointing out they are fake.

She adds that a lot of these videos have now been taken down.

“I wanted to share my story, I wanted to make sure that people will understand that not everything that you’re seeing online is real,” says she. “I love sharing my ideas with the world, and none of these fraudsters can stop me from doing that.”