The Doctors Are Real, but the Sales Pitches Are Frauds (The New York Times)

Artificial intelligence is giving scammers a new weapon: impersonating trusted doctors to push fake health products. The New York Times reports how leading physicians like Dr. Robert Lustig (UCSF), Dr. Gemma Newman (UK), Dr. Eric Topol (Scripps), and Dr. Caroline Apovian (Harvard) have discovered A.I.-generated videos, ads, and even counterfeit books using their likenesses without consent. These deepfake campaigns promote fraudulent supplements — including fake GLP-1 “liquid capsules” — that appear on major platforms like Facebook, Amazon, and even Google ads, tricking vulnerable patients into wasting money or avoiding real treatment. Despite takedown attempts, the scams keep spreading across borders, eroding public trust in medicine and raising an urgent question: can regulators and tech companies keep pace with A.I.-powered deception before it rewrites the rules of online health care?