The doctor who had his image cloned by AI to sell miracle cures on YouTube: 'They could be causing fatal harm to the elderly'

The channels that cloned the Brazilian identity associate, for example, hot baths with heart problems ("the hidden danger of hot baths in winter that puts a strain on your heart") and recommend "natural" treatments that would replace medicines recommended by health professionals. Together, these pages have hundreds of thousands of followers. BBC News Brasil identified evidence that the channels may be operated by the same person or group. The pages were created in the same period and share identical titles and even scripts. The Dr. Hélio - Medical Information page shared, for example, on May 22, a video about "four cheeses that can destroy your health after the age of 60". The following day, another channel, Dr. André Tavares, published the same content. Two days later, another channel, Dr. Helio Consejos de Salud, continues with the same title. The flow will be repeated at least until June 8th, with videos of the same content on the channels of Dr. Aline Vitta and Dr. Hélio Saúde em Foco. This reuse of content is constant and appears in other themes, spread across at least 20 different channels mapped by the report. Research by the non-profit organization CTRL+Z mapped that channels of this type, which use AI to talk about health, have more than 70 million views. A report by BBC News Brasil showed how these channels operate, and Google removed part of these pages after publication. The Hélio Brasileiro clones, however, which are part of the survey, remained on the air even after the alert to the company. 'I reported several videos from a channel. Then I saw that there are countless others' In addition to being a doctor, Hélio Brasileiro is also a YouTuber. His channel has 270 thousand subscribers and almost 700 videos. The first publications, 14 years ago, were intended, he says, to disseminate information about sleep medicine to other doctors. Then, during the pandemic, he decided to reactivate the channel to debunk lies about vaccines and healthcare. "See what an irony of fate: I reactivated the channel with a slogan: medical information without fake." He was surprised to see his image in a BBC News Brasil report about AI-generated fake doctors. "I reported several videos from just one channel. Then I saw, in a conversation with you [BBC News Brasil reporter], that there are countless others." After the BBC article, he says he filed a new complaint with YouTube and also registered a police report online with the São Paulo Civil Police. The case was forwarded to the 3rd DP of Sorocaba, where it is being investigated for ideological falsehood, false identity, false alarm and attempted defamation. The responsible delegate, Alessandra Silveira, stated in her order that "the fraudulent scheme gained international repercussions", causing damage to the Brazilian reputation and "risk of poisoning or self-medication to the population". "The seriousness of the dissemination of medical misinformation through biometric simulation requires immediate action by the Judiciary Police", stated the delegate. In a note to the BBC, the São Paulo Public Security Secretariat reported that steps are being taken to identify the perpetrators of the crimes and hold them accountable. The doctor says he received guidance from YouTube to register his image on the platform, which would make it easier to report and remove content that misuses his identity. YouTube stated, in a note to BBC News Brasil, that all content on the platform, including that generated with AI tools, must follow community guidelines. "This encompasses our policies on medical misinformation, which prohibit misinformation about prevention and treatments that are proven to cause serious real-world harm." The company said it has added labels to AI-generated content to ensure viewers are informed about what they are watching. "When we identify infringing material on YouTube, we take appropriate action in accordance with our Terms of Service, YouTube Partner Program rules, and our Community Guidelines." The company did not respond to questions from BBC News Brasil about the misuse of the image of doctor Hélio Brasileiro. Network that copies image of doctor Hélio Brasileiro uses identical titles and even the same script Reproduction/Youtube 'Whoever creates this has no empathy' Brasileiro said that his biggest concern is the harm that the videos can cause to those who watch them: they discourage medical monitoring and suggest ineffective miracle recipes, at the same time that they use his authority as a doctor to convey credibility. "It's scary. We see that most of the videos are aimed at seniors, and most of them contain misinformation. It's worrying — and that's why I took all legal action possible," he says. "Imagine that you are hypertensive and have been taking medication for a long time. A video appears with my image saying: 'if you, an elderly person, are hypertensive and take this medication, you don't know the harm it is doing to your kidneys — it is much healthier to drink passion fruit juice'", he explains. "And then you see comments from elderly people saying: 'My God, I've been taking this medicine for a long time, why didn't the doctor inform me? I'm going to stop taking the medicine and start drinking passion fruit juice'." His greatest desire, he says, is for the channels to be taken down and for this type of fraud to become public knowledge, "so as not to cause harm to users." "I'm not a police investigator, I have no intention of punishing — this is for the Judiciary, for the police. My role, as a doctor, is to inform and make it clear that this misinformation is dangerous. That these channels are closed and new ones do not emerge, so as not to harm the health of the population." He also calls for this type of video to stop being produced: "Whoever creates this has no empathy. Anyone who seeks to make money this way could be causing fatal harm to the elderly and other people who follow this information. And it could be the father, mother or even the son of the person who created the channel." Practice can be considered a crime, experts say Experts interviewed by BBC News Brasil warn that this type of content can pose a health risk by discouraging proven treatments or encouraging conduct without scientific basis. "People's health is something individualized. A medication or advice can be beneficial to one person and harmful to another, depending on comorbidities and interactions with other medications. We see this as a great risk", says the vice-president of the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM), Jeancarlo Cavalcante. According to him, the danger is even greater for the elderly, who may fail to seek adequate medical care, as shown by reports published by people in this age group in the comments of the videos analyzed by the report. Cavalcante adds that the Council can forward complaints about this type of content to the Public Ministry and the police authorities. In the opinion of Thiago Bottino, professor at FGV Direito Rio, the simple publication of this type of video does not constitute a crime. The situation changes, however, when the fake doctor starts to perform functions exclusive to the profession. "The problem is when someone who is not a doctor, whether a real person or artificial intelligence, acts as a doctor, prescribing medication, saying what the appropriate treatment would be. It is a case of irregular practice of medicine, which is a crime provided for in the Penal Code." Bottino also states that those responsible for the videos may be liable for the crime of false identity by presenting themselves as doctors without informing that they are characters generated by artificial intelligence. Filipe Medon, professor at FGV Direito Rio and deputy coordinator of the AI Hub, states that the problem is not in producing content about medicine based on scientific research, but in creating artificial intelligence characters that pretend to be doctors and mislead the public. According to him, in addition to the creators, Platforms may also be held civilly liable if they do not remove this type of content after being notified and, in cases of paid boosting, the obligation to remove may exist even without prior notification.