Ioan Gruffudd reports AI impersonation to police

Actor Ioan Gruffudd says a woman told him she believed she had been in an extramarital relationship with him for more than a year after someone impersonating him sent her hundreds of explicit AI-generated images and videos. Gruffudd said he reported the matter to police and warned people not to engage with anyone pretending to be him online.

Gruffudd described the encounter in an Instagram post after meeting the woman at a convention he was attending. He said she showed him the material, which had been sent by someone claiming to be the actor. The woman’s account, as relayed by Gruffudd, has not been independently confirmed in the reports.

He said the person first contacted her through a Facebook page for the television series Elsbeth, in which Gruffudd appeared, and then directed her to communicate through Telegram. According to Gruffudd, the sender used AI-generated images and videos to persuade her that the messages were from him.

Gruffudd later clarified that the impersonation was not a financial scam: he said the woman was not asked for money and sent none. He said the aim was to create a false relationship, and that the absence of a financial request contributed to her...