What happened
CBC reports that AI-generated ads using the faces and voices of prominent Canadian physicians are circulating on Facebook and TikTok, selling prostate treatments, joint pills and “$1 million satisfaction guarantees.” Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s provincial health officer, and Dr. François Marquis, chief of intensive care at Maisonneuve-Rosemont in Montreal, have both been cloned repeatedly; one victim came to Marquis’s ICU asking for a refund on pills that never arrived. Cease-and-desist letters, platform reports, the medical college and the police have all led nowhere. A 2024 BMJ report describes the same pattern in the UK, and the US NO FAKES Act is still a bill.
What it means for practice
If you have a public face, assume it is already in a training set. The practical steps are small: a verified profile patients can check, a line on your site saying you sell nothing through social ads, and a saved search on your own name once a month. The larger point is the one behind this week’s cover. Patients cannot tell a physician from a rendering of one, and the platforms will not do it for them.
Originally published in The Longevity Medicine Intelligence newsletter (#107).
