As deepfake videos by John Mearsheimer multiplied on YouTube, the American academic rushed to have them removed, launching a grueling battle that laid bare the challenges of combating AI-powered impersonation.
The international relations researcher spent months pushing the Google-owned platform to remove hundreds of deepfakes, an uphill battle that stands as a cautionary tale for professionals vulnerable to disinformation and identity theft in the age of AI.
In recent months, Mearsheimer’s office at the University of Chicago identified 43 YouTube channels pushing AI fabrications using his likeness, some depicting him with contentious remarks about heated geopolitical rivalry.
A fabricated clip, which also appeared on TikTok, purported to show academic commentary on Japan’s strained relationship with China after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expressed support for Taiwan in November.
Another lifelike AI clip, with a Mandarin voiceover aimed at a Chinese audience, purported to show Mearsheimer arguing that US credibility and influence was weakening in Asia as Beijing surged ahead.
“This is a terribly disturbing situation because these videos are fake and they are designed to give viewers the feeling that they are real,” Mearsheimer said AFP.
“It undermines the notion of open and honest discourse that we so desperately need and that YouTube is supposed to facilitate.”
Central to the fight was what Mearsheimer’s office described as a slow, cumbersome process that prevents channels from being reported for infringement unless the targeted person’s name or image was in its title, description or avatar.
As a result, his office was forced to submit individual takedown requests for each deepfake video, a cumbersome process that required a dedicated staff member.
‘AI scales manufacturing’
Even then, the system failed to contain the spread. New AI channels continued to sprout, some slightly changing their names—such as calling themselves “Jhon Mearsheimer”—to avoid scrutiny and removal.
“The biggest problem is that they [YouTube] doesn’t prevent new channels dedicated to posting AI-generated videos of me from emerging,” Mearsheimer said.
After months of back-and-forth — and what Mearsheimer described as a “Herculean” effort — YouTube shut down 41 of the 43 channels identified.
But the takedowns came only after many deepfake clips gained significant traction, and the risk of them resurfacing remains.
“AI scales the fabrication itself. When anyone can generate a convincing image of you in seconds, the damage isn’t just the image. It’s the collapse of denial. The burden of proof shifts to the victim,” Vered Horesh of AI startup Bria told me. AFP.
“Security cannot be a process of removal – it must be a product requirement.”
In its response, a YouTube spokesperson said it was committed to building “AI technology that responsibly empowers human creativity” and that it enforces its policies “consistently” for all creators, regardless of their use of AI.
In his latest annual letter outlining YouTube’s priorities for 2026, CEO Neal Mohan wrote that the platform is “actively building” on its systems to reduce the spread of “AI slop” — low-quality visual content — while it plans to dramatically expand AI tools for its creators.
‘Big headache’
Mearsheimer’s experience underscores a new, fraud-ridden Internet, where rapid advances in generative AI are distorting shared reality and allowing anonymous fraudsters to target professionals with public-facing profiles.
Hoaxes produced with cheap AI tools can often slip past detection and deceive unsuspecting viewers.
In recent months, doctors have been outed for selling fake medical products, CEOs for selling fraudulent financial advice, and academics for fabricating opinions for agenda-driven players in geopolitical rivalry.
Mearsheimer said he planned to launch his own YouTube channel to help protect users from deepfakes impersonating him.
Reflecting this approach, Jeffrey Sachs, an American economist and professor at Columbia University, recently announced the launch of his own channel in response to “the extraordinary proliferation of fake, AI-generated videos of me” on the platform.
“The YouTube process is difficult to navigate and generally just a complete mess,” Sachs said AFP.
“There is still a proliferation of counterfeits and it is not easy for my office to track them, or even to notice them until they have been around for a while. This is a big, ongoing headache,” he added.
