WEBVTT - Who is Lily Jay? The Australian influencer accused of using AI in aid videos 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:05.200 Is finally opened. Come meet our newest children in Africa. 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:10.080 A blonde woman stands among smiling children holding lollipops. A 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:13.360 foundation banner hangs behind them. She announces that a new 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:14.920 orphanage has opened in Africa. 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.720 Look, they are laughing, singing, dancing, laying together. 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.200 She's finally allowed to be with you. 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:25.439 But the evidence collected during an ABC investigation suggests that 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.040 the woman in the video isn't real, neither of the 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.360 children or the banner behind them. The scene appears to 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:36.280 have been generated using artificial intelligence. Millions of people have 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:40.560 watched an Australian influencer promise food, shelter and hope to 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:44.480 children some of the world's most critical crisis zones. Now 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:48.320 her foundation is facing questions about its humanitarian claims, the 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.680 money it's solicited and the damage AI generated appeals could 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:57.279 due to public trust in charities. I'm Daniel James and 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:02.320 you're listening to seven AM today ABC News verified journalist 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.640 Matt Martino, the Lily j Foundation and the tangled web 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:20.800 behind it humanitarian work. It's Thursday, July twenty three. Matt, 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.959 to begin with, tell me how you came across this story. 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:29.800 So there's an old manage in journalism that the length 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.280 of a tip is in verse two its usefulness too, 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:37.319 and that really came up in this story. We received 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:43.360 a foreword tip about Lily Jay, totally anonymous, no link, 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.800 and so we just you know, googled her, looked into 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:51.240 it and came across her Instagram and her foundation come with. 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:56.560 Me to visit the orphans today. So I'm like, today 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:00.720 we gave new shoes, clothes, learning materials, and sweet fill 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:01.280 the children. 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.840 And the thing that really struck me to begin with 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.840 was this foundation had only really been set up in 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:12.760 sort of August last year, but it was claiming to 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:19.000 do all this work in places like Gaza Uganda, Nepal, Philippines, 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:26.280 su Dan, building mosques and establishing orphanages and bakeries of 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:27.960 bakery and Gaza Billy Jay. 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:36.919 It's actually open. 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:48.120 You know. What we do with ABC News verifies verification journalism, 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:52.760 so we sort of test whether content we find on 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:57.440 social media all the time matches up with reality and 0:02:57.560 --> 0:02:59.760 AI is a big part of that. So we started 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:07.120 to find a lot of inconsistencies with reality on the 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.760 content that Lily Jay was producing. 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:14.839 Who is Lily j What can you tell us about her. 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:21.160 So, Lily j is an Australian influencer. She's from Queensland. 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:27.959 She's documented her conversion to Islam on social media and 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:33.600 she's garnered quite a large following through hot takes about 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:36.200 Islam promoting the religion. 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:38.760 Guys, you will not believe what just happened to me 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:40.200 at the mosqu today. Today's Friday. 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:41.240 Happy Jamma everyone. 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:43.960 I just went to the mosque and I sat after 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.240 Jumat with my Quran and I literally I opened the 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.440 Quran at a random page. I love doing this when 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:52.120 I'm like, just need a little bit of guidance for 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:52.960 Mala or something. 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.880 And her main account has a history which goes back 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.240 to twenty twelve, so we know a bit about her. 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:05.480 We've seen pictures of quite a lavish lifestyle of high 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:11.120 end jewelry and vacations and luxury locations. We do know 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.600 that at one point she was a singer. We know 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:18.560 that she was also at one point an aspiring actress. 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:24.040 So she's worn a few hats, we would say, before 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:30.840 turning towards being an Instagram influencer and ostensible humanitarian. And 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:34.720 she's then sort of used that following that she's built 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:39.279 where she solicits donations from the public, and. 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.640 So you get the tip off and you start looking 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.599 at these videos and posts. What was the first sign 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:48.040 to you that some of it might have been fake. 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.560 So there are a few videos, but one really jumped 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:55.440 out of me of an orphanage in Uganda that Lily 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:59.719 j claim that she had established. So at the beginning 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:04.320 of this video, Lily Jay appears sort of surrounded by 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:08.000 African children in front of this sort of orange building. 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:13.000 In the background there's a banner that says Lily Jay Foundation, 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:18.520 and underneath that banner is a window. She announces that 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.599 the orphanage is open, and then it cuts to another 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.400 shot of exactly the same location, but in that shot 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.960 the window has actually moved and the banner is gone. 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:32.600 Did you know there is over one hundred and fifty 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.240 million orphan children in the world right now? 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:38.600 And then looking through the rest of the video, we 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:42.240 discovered more instances of things that look like they could 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:46.039 be AI. So at one point on a worker's T shirt, 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:47.960 on the back of his T shirt, an extra L 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.520 starts to appear and sort of meld and disappear in 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:53.200 the Lily Jay Foundation name. 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.960 We bought them new shoes, We washed them, gave them 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.479 new clothes, everything a child needs. 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.640 And at another point there's a shot of a child 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:07.000 wearing a Lily Jay Foundation T shirt. But the Lily 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.960 Jay Foundation logo is upside down. 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:14.920 This is only just the beginning in shell life. 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:16.800 Together, we can make a bigger difference. 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.479 So these are all things that indicate that perhaps AI 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:23.760 has been involved, because they look like the typical errors 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:25.800 that AI would make. 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:28.760 So you see these images that appear to have either 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:32.480 been generated or manipulated. Which of the foundations claims were 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:36.120 you simply unable to independently verify on top of that. 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:41.640 So the Ugandan orphanage, yes, we contacted the Ugandan government 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.440 who confirmed to us that there was no orphanage registered 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.359 under AID and or the name that Lily Jay had 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.560 given to it or her foundation, the Lily Jay Foundation. 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.920 We also contacted other AID organizations in the region and 0:06:56.560 --> 0:07:00.320 they hadn't heard of Lily Jay or this orphanage either. 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.520 In Gaza, the bakery that she claimed to establish, we 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:09.359 were unable to geolocate that bakery. We contacted AID groups 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:13.520 there as well, who hadn't heard of it either. You know, 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:17.880 Gaza's not a huge place, and there's not a huge 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:22.760 quantity of aid organizations in there. Someone somewhere would have 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.480 heard of a bakery that's feeding a vast quantity of 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.760 children every day, but we were unable to find any 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:32.360 evidence of it at all. 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.680 The foundation wasn't just posting about its humanitarian work, it 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:39.080 was also asking for donations to support it. What do 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:40.800 we know about how much money it was getting in 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:41.840 where that money was going. 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.680 It's really difficult to quantify how much money might have 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:49.400 been donated to the foundation. What we do know is 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:53.720 that Lily Jay has a very large following, but not 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.840 only that, she gets a lot of engagement from what 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:02.200 appeared to be genuine Muslim on her account, they post 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:08.400 messages of support, they talk about how they've donated, and 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:10.640 some of them sort of send comments saying, oh, I 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:12.960 haven't got my proof of donation yet, are you going 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:16.440 to send it? Or you know, they talk about how 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:20.360 they got the proof of the donation. So putting a 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:24.360 dollar figure on it is really difficult, but I think 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:28.320 it's safe to say that a substantial number of people 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:33.040 have donated. It wouldn't be chump change. The curious thing 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:37.080 about it is that on her website, the foundation actually 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.280 admits that it is not a registered. 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:41.840 Charity, So what does that mean. 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:48.319 So the foundation is registered in Australia as a corporation, 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:52.679 it has directors, but it's not registered with the Australian 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:57.040 Charities and Not for Profits Commission. That's the government regulator 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:02.679 in Australia which overseas these charities. They're accountable to the regulator. 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:07.200 They have to supply transparent reports to them about where 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:09.920 the money is going and if there's any wrongdoing, the 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.680 regulator can intervene. It means also that if you donate 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:18.200 to this foundation, you can't tax deduct your donation, so 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:21.640 there's not a lot of transparency here. We're not able. 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.560 I mean it's a very young foundation, but we're not 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.880 able to look into its reports. No one is. It's 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:32.120 not accountable to the government when people donate to it. 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.800 There's no pay per trail for where the money is 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.720 actually going, and that's something that I think is really 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.440 important when you're dealing with other people's money to be 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.000 really accountable about how you're spending it. 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:52.920 Still to can't what established humanitarian groups say about the 0:09:52.960 --> 0:10:05.280 Lily Jay Foundation, but as you've looked further into the foundation. 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:07.520 What have you been able to find out about the 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:11.120 woman whose name it uses Lily j Does her name 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:13.720 appear anywhere in the foundation's corporate records. 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:18.360 Lily Jay's name does not appear anywhere in the corporate 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:23.400 records in Australia. There's three directors on those corporate records. 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:26.760 I did manage to speak to one of those directors, 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:32.240 a Sired Moson. He confirmed that he was a director 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.800 of the foundation, but then he told me that it 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.160 was very busy where he was at that point and 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:41.680 that he would call me back and hung up the phone, 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:48.760 and then he didn't respond to any further inquiries. After 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:53.080 we spoke to Sired Mosen and put in inquiries with 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:59.360 the Lily Jay Foundation, things started to disappear. A lot 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.480 of the content from the website started to disappear, and 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:06.880 the donation's domain taken off the page and replaced with 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.080 a statement about how the aid was still continuing and 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:15.000 to follow for updates. Additionally, another website which Lily Ja 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:20.079 was involved in, Real Media Group, which had announced that 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:25.520 Lily Jay had won a humanitarian award. That website also 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:28.400 went dark after we inquired about it. 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.760 Since publishing the investigation. Lily Ja has responded publicly tell 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:35.679 me about what she said. 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:41.839 So Lily Jay has responded since we published our reporting 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:47.040 over a couple of very long YouTube videos. 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:49.560 What you guys don't understand is that this is a 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.120 carefully orchestrated attack against me. Let me tell you the 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:58.000 facts first, and then you can decide gobs back. I 0:11:58.040 --> 0:11:59.480 don't even know what to say. 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:06.040 She denied that the orphanage was fake, and she says 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:10.320 that the bakery itself, that she never said she opened 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.640 a bakery, that she was always just working with partners 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:18.240 on the ground, and that the bakery was now inaccessible 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.880 and those partners had moved to another part of Gaza. 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:23.840 She's still working with. 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:25.360 Them and now we are operating. 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:29.640 Here is she reading red to the people of Gaza. 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:32.240 And no, we won't be telling you the location of 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:32.920 this bakery. 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:35.360 We will not be telling you the location of this bakery. 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:37.240 We do not want it at tapped again like the 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:38.040 first bakery. 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:44.080 She claimed to call some of the organizations or some 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.880 of the initiatives that she had established live your. 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:53.720 Camera frozen, ah, here we go, slowly, come high la comsala, 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:55.520 how are you? 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:01.119 It's not clear what time of day these really actually occurred, 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:06.720 or whether they are genuine or staged or anything like that. 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.920 What are we giving today is what are you giving 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:12.440 today to the children? 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:19.160 Okay, yeah, that looks great, very nice. 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:24.480 She says that AI was used in her content. 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:30.320 Short promotional content contained small elements of AI created by 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:34.560 our marketing team. It was never ever meant to substitute 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.200 any real aid going on. If a video has ME 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.280 in the mid beginning of the video, it gets a 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:43.000 million views. If it doesn't, it gets like ten thousand views. 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.040 It's just a simple way to get more awareness out there. 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:50.080 That might be a reasonable explanation if it were true, 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:55.040 but it's demonstrably false. There is AI all throughout the 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.679 duration of some of the videos that we have investigated. 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:04.800 But what is really conspicuously absent is an explanation for 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:09.720 the award that they announced on the website that lily 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:14.560 j had won. This award doesn't exist outside of lily 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:20.120 Jay's platforms. The images are AI. You put them through 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:25.520 open AI's synthid detector, which is an imperceptible watermark that 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.640 open ai adds to its content, and it comes up 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.680 as positive for being generated by open ais tools. So 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:36.280 they are unequivocally AI. She has not offered an explanation 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:40.600 as to why she needed to generate AI images and 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:49.040 give herself a fake award. If you've got genuine humanitarian credentials, 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:53.720 then the question is why do you feel the need 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:58.120 to present yourself that way with a fake award. That's 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:01.480 something that she still hasn't a and I think her 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:06.760 donors really need answers on that, because if she is 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.320 resorting to that kind of fakery, then it casts a 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:13.760 paul over any humanitarian work that she claims that she 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:14.400 might have done. 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.520 You've spoken to established humanitarian groups who have delivered eight 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.080 in some of these areas for a long time. What 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:28.680 do they say about all this? So the Red Crescent told. 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:32.920 Us that generally speaking, it had noticed a bit of 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:40.520 a proliferation in unverified charities operating in recent years. We 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:45.520 also spoke to Tim Costello, who's the former CEO of 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:51.120 a World Vision. He basically said that if your charity 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:55.560 isn't registered with the Australian charities are not for profit Commission, 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:57.000 do not donate. 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.600 And of those other ad charities that open to those 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:06.000 humanitarian groups, how worried are they about AI? And its 0:16:06.120 --> 0:16:10.160 usage and making this potentially a broader problem for them 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:13.000 and for the charitable sector more broadly. 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:18.560 Well, the thing about charities and stories like this is 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:21.800 that when they come out, it makes people think twice 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:26.400 about donating. And so the worry is that, you know, 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:29.560 with the proliferation of AI, there would be a degradation 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:34.840 of trust and that would flow through to people not 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:39.880 wanting to give their money to aid organizations. It's incredibly 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:43.400 important that people continue to donate because that work that 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:47.560 they are doing, the genuine humanitarian work, is so important. 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:53.280 It saves lives and it improves lives, and so it 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:58.520 is a diabolical problem when it is so easy to 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:04.000 manipulate and fake genuine aid on the internet. It's a 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:07.479 problem that's probably only going to continue to get worse 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.639 as these tools become much easier to operate for people. 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.080 Well, Matt, thanks for your work on this. It's fascinating 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.600 stuff and thanks for coming on seven am. Thanks for 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:22.080 having me on seven am. Did approach lately Jay for 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.879 comment on the claims that have been made. We didn't 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:42.680 receive a response. Also in the news, Iranian State Television 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.320 has announced to air defenses are being activated in the 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:49.000 capital Tehran, following the eleventh straight night of US attacks 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.880 on the country. It comes as US President Donald Trump 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.000 stated he has quote no interest in talks with Iran 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.080 at this stage. He suggested that the US could soon 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.720 target a suspect that Uranian and Richmond, while also stating 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:06.240 US intelligence sees no activity at the facility, and A 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.679 nationwide test of a national emergency warning system will go 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:13.680 ahead next week despite concerns about the extent of its coverage. 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:16.120 The test of the new Odds Alert system, which sends 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:18.879 a ten second alarm to compatible mobile phones in an 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:21.760 area impacted by an emergency, will be carried out on 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.359 Monday before it goes live in October, but state and 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:28.000 territory leaders have raised concerns that the alert won't work 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.440 on some older models of mobile phones or Rich Australians 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:34.840 in remote parts of the country. I'm Daniel James. Thank 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:38.520 you for listening to seven AM. We'll be back tomorrow.