Jacinta Nampijinpa Price targeted in AI deepfake kissing clip
Kate Atkinson
April 16, 2025
WHAT WAS CLAIMED
A video shows a kiss between Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Alan Jones.
OUR VERDICT
False. The video was created using artificial intelligence technology.
AAP FactCheck – A video depicting a slow kiss between Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and former high-profile broadcaster Alan Jones is spreading online, but it’s a deepfake.
Key signs it was created using artificial intelligence (AI) technology are visible throughout the six-second clip.
It’s being shared during the campaign for the upcoming federal election on May 3, 2025, with one Facebook post gaining more than 260,000 views.
The coalition politician and the shock jock are pictured standing side by side before they turn and share a kiss.
Experts told AAP FactCheck the video contains clear signs of digital manipulation.
Daniel Miller, a psychology lecturer and deepfake researcher at James Cook University, pointed out a few suspect cues, including the skin on Senator Price’s hand appearing a lot darker than the skin on her face.
Though Dr Miller acknowledged the irregularity could be down to facial make-up, the contrast with the top of the arm is quite stark.
Deepfakes are often generated by AI software melding the visual data available in a photograph with the moving images in entirely separate video footage.
This can mean elements, such as limbs, remain from the original footage.
“Thus, disparity in skin tone or agedness between the face and hands or arms can be one giveaway,” Dr Miller explained.
He also noted that the corner of Senator Price’s eye distorts, with her eyeshadow moving up and down (timestamp four seconds).
In addition, when Mr Jones turns his head, he has visible crow’s feet wrinkles near his eye (0:02), but his skin then becomes completely smooth, before the wrinkles reappear (0:04).
University of NSW AI expert Toby Walsh said the video demonstrates that it’s “very hard to tell real from fake”.
Conceding the anomalies are difficult to spot, Professor Walsh said he noticed Ms Price’s nose “deforms in a slightly strange way against Alan Jones’s face” (0:04), plus her arm disappears as she pulls it away (0:05).
Another clue for Prof Walsh was that the account posting the video is labelled as a “digital creator” and has posted “synthetic” content in the past, including a similar deepfake purporting to show Senator Price kissing Peter Dutton.
Niusha Shafiabady, a computational intelligence expert at Australian Catholic University, pointed to the appearance of the senator’s arm in the fake Alan Jones clip.
“The elbow is very thin and the upper side of the hand doesn’t merge well with the background picture,” she said, adding that the third finger looks “a bit out of place” (0:04).
A spokeswoman for Senator Price confirmed the video is fake.
It appears to have been created using a photo of the pair originally published online by radio station 2GB in 2019 when Ms Price, then an Alice Springs councillor, was interviewed by Mr Jones.
Mr Jones was a broadcaster at 2GB for 18 years until he retired from his role in 2020. He also co-hosted a political discussion program on Sky News Australia from 2013 to 2021, before joining streaming news channel ADH TV later that year.
In 2024, he was arrested and charged with indecent assault and sexual touching offences, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, BlueSky, TikTok and YouTube. (AAP)
