This morning in Nigeria began with a demonstration against the rising cost of living. In the last few years, the country has seen a constant need to protest, either for insecurity or unemployment. 



However, those are put on hold as citizens now struggle to feed in an economy that is steadily growing into crisis.



The national assembly in Abuja is covered with a crowd of demonstrators who are guarded by the police. Protesters mount blocks on the road to minimise movement and activities in Abuja.



The initiators of the recent protest, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) intend to pressure the government to rethink the reforms put in place last year &#8211; the removal of subsidy. 



This system had previously allowed Nigerians to pay less for petrol and keep a balance in the country&#8217;s trade connections. A change in the prices of petrol drags every commodity in Nigeria. 



Currently, a litre of petrol costs over three times the price from a year before. Inflation rates are soaring and people who can afford meat, eggs and milk now are considered rich. 



Citizens blame the previous government for the economic crises and high inflation rates of 2024. The former government had the Central Bank print huge amounts of about $19bn as short-term loans to cover expenditures, thereby, fueling inflation. 



The National Bureau of Statistics in January said it has now recorded an inflation rate of almost 30 per cent, which is about three decades high.



The economy also further took a blow from new currency management as the naira plunged lower against the dollar.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" src="https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/nigeria-protests-1024x576.jpg" alt="Protests in Nigeria in 2024" class="wp-image-1243" srcset="https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/nigeria-protests-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/nigeria-protests-300x169.jpg 300w, https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/nigeria-protests-768x432.jpg 768w, https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/nigeria-protests-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/nigeria-protests.jpg 1600w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Government Response to NUC Protest</h2>



The Federal Government had met with the organised Labour at the State House Abuja the day before regarding the protests. However, this meeting did not go well for both parties and ended without a proper consensus.



They are demanding an end to this devaluation of the naira as well as an increase in the minimum wage which has been below $20. This could help people survive the rising cost of living. 



The government&#8217;s response to these demands is a plea of patience from the patience to allow the new reforms to take effect. President Tinubu says that the target is to attract foreign investment.



More on the list of demands by the NUC protesters are;



Stop wasting the country&#8217;s resources and putting an end to the dollarization of the Nigerian economy.



Fix abandoned factories.



Restore local and encourage local goods and services.



A substantial investment in Agriculture and value-added manufacturing to create employment.



Subsidy for farmers, so as to give agriculture and food security a boost.



Disclose all the hidden palliative and distribute them equally across the country.



Taking the repair of all refineries as a national prerogative.



Make power supply and water available, affordable and accessible.



Increase the road/rail transportation and social housing investments. Provide cheap mass transportation buses operating on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).



Abandon International Monetary Fund and World Bank policies which are perceived as a medium of hardship for Nigerians.



Increase funding for education and healthcare at all levels. Establish a working social security system for the old and vulnerable.



Pay workers and pensioners what the government owes them.



Joe Ajaero of the NLC and Festus Osifo of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) led two teams that presented these demands to the government.



On X the protest trends with the hashtag #EndHungerProtest.

Rounds of Protests Overtake Nigeria

A bunch of AI-generated misinformation that could be ravaging Black celebrities is all over and being relished by a certain type of audience. The perpetrators understand their audience needs to feed off lies which is what the fake content is propagating.



Social platforms are used to disseminate AI-generated media in a recent explosion of manipulated false news. Fake news has previously circulated in this way, however, recent occasions are influenced by present-day technological advancements sought for alternative news sources.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Fake AI News on Black Celebrities</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="594" src="https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ai-fake-news-1024x594.jpg" alt="The abuse of AI technology will not end with fake news about Black celebrities. Abusers will likely find new ways. Photo: Unsplash/Steve Johnson" class="wp-image-921" srcset="https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ai-fake-news-1024x594.jpg 1024w, https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ai-fake-news-300x174.jpg 300w, https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ai-fake-news-768x446.jpg 768w, https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ai-fake-news.jpg 1217w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The abuse of AI technology will not end with fake news about Black celebrities. Abusers will likely find new ways. Photo: Unsplash/Steve Johnson</figcaption></figure>



NBC News said a number of YouTube channels it reviewed conveyed misinformation compiled from exploiting news about celebrities. They have a huge audience and made an impact.



The <a href="https://culturays.com/newscontent/world/fake-ai-generated-videos-on-youtube-target-bishop-t-d-jakes-black-celebs/">millions of viewers served this misleading content have no idea</a> what they are. The voiceovers narrate sensational topics mixed in artificial intelligence-generated media. 



The captions are also hyped beyond reality to catch attention and content is often inappropriate and untrue. Content like these violates terms and conditions on social platforms like YouTube where many of them are shared. 



The platform has responded and taken action. In the last weeks, several of these channels have been taken down, and the videos removed. Others have been demonetized. YouTube has yet to enforce its new policy that will check synthetic and manipulated media in videos. 



It is probable that these channels were created for the sole purpose of creating fake news. However, a few of them appear to have switched topics recently.



According to <a href="https://www.techtimes.com/articles/293171/20230629/ai-generated-tweets-trustworthy-humans.htm">a June 2023 study</a>, &#8220;cheapfakes&#8221; the term for media that is manipulated and imitates AI, look legitimate and trustworthy to people. It is almost impossible to tell them apart except with the use of AI models designed for the purpose.



AI technology will likely be abused in new ways even after this is controlled. 



<div class="post__">Read more on the topic of fake AI-generated news targeted at black celebrities <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/misinformation/ai-deepfake-fake-news-youtube-black-celebrities-rcna133368" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> here </a>on NBC News</div>

The abuse of AI technology will not end with fake news about Black celebrities. Abusers will likely find new ways. Photo: Unsplash/Steve Johnson

AI Misinformation Against Black Celebrities Is In Circulation

Black celebrities are a target of a recent stream of artificial intelligence-generated media and videos spreading falsified news.&nbsp;Bishop T.D. Jakes, Jay-Z, Sean “Diddy” Combs and even Ivy Blue are among the latest victims having their real-life events overstretched in these manipulated videos that have no proof. 



They depict celebrities in inappropriate activities that are untrue and farfetched from the reality they claim to be narrating.



These videos contain graphic, expensive misinformation and suggestive voiceovers and are all made using generative AI tools. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="645" src="https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ai-2-1024x645.jpg" alt="Ai Misinformation in Circulation" class="wp-image-1249" srcset="https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ai-2-1024x645.jpg 1024w, https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ai-2-300x189.jpg 300w, https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ai-2-768x484.jpg 768w, https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ai-2.jpg 1122w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Ai Misinformation in Circulation</figcaption></figure>



Since 2022, manipulative copycats have begun emulating generative AI technologies with &#8220;cheapfakes&#8221; (non-AI). The technology by ChatGPT, Google and Microsoft, known to many and enables users to deliver more refined work, is abused to generate fake content.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How to recognise AI-generated videos, content</h2>



A lot of people have possibly seen these pictures and videos and not recognised them for what they are. They appear on YouTube, Facebook and TikTok mostly.



Social platforms like YouTube have an obligation to terminate channels for violating its Terms of Service. Additionally, they are liable to removing channels from monetization programs along with all the content &#8211; videos and thumbnails. YouTube essentially reviews and removes channels flagged for having explicit content. However, taking these videos down could sometimes take a while, so they could get to millions of people before that happens. 



It is arguably easy to spot these AI-generated media and fake content. 



A considerable <a href="https://culturays.com/newscontent/world/ai-misinformation-against-black-celebrities-is-in-circulation/">part of the AI-generated fake videos is a dramatic depiction</a> of events. Only Black celebrities feature in the most latest narratives &#8211; Rihanna &amp; Beyonce have been seen showing excessive emotions in content with bloated captions relating to very personal issues.



That is how to identify them. They twist real stories to sound like the lives of these celebrities are falling apart with the intent to shock and exaggerate scandalous events about celebrities. 



The voiceovers narrate fake information pretending to provide new information about real topics that already have millions of audiences. 



AI detection models were used to run the videos and audio and they produced 98% &amp; 99% results of being made with generative tools. Audio from real voices is distinguished from synthetic audio by the model.<a href="mailto:?subject=Microsoft%27s%20Satya%20Nadella%20on%20AI%20and%20potential%20election%20interference&amp;body=https://www.today.com/video/microsoft-s-satya-nadella-talks-concerns-over-ai-and-2024-election-203215941939" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"></a>



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<div class="post__">Read more on the topic of fake AI-generated news targeted at black celebrities <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/misinformation/ai-deepfake-fake-news-youtube-black-celebrities-rcna133368"> here </a>on NBC News</div>

Black Celebrities are implicated in fake AI videos

Fake AI-Generated Videos on YouTube Target Bishop T.D. Jakes, Black Celebs

There is an ongoing wave of remakes and sequels for good Nollywood movies from the 90s. This wave has seen the remakes and sequels of films like Ahanna: Rattle Snake and Domittila. 



The next to expect from <a href="https://culturays.com/nollywood/news/nollywood-remakes-or-originals-what-is-best/">this wave of remakes and sequels</a> in Nollywood is Issakaba. It may not be very apparent, but the name is a palindrome of the word &#8220;Bakassi.&#8221;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1001" height="604" src="https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/samdede.jpg" alt="Sam Dede from The Black Book" class="wp-image-930" style="object-fit:cover;width:618px;height:400px" srcset="https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/samdede.jpg 1001w, https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/samdede-300x181.jpg 300w, https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/samdede-768x463.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1001px) 100vw, 1001px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Sam Dede from The Black Book</figcaption></figure>



Issakaba was a vigilante movie that simulated the Aba Bakassi boys from the 1990s. 



These are some of the things to have in mind before the new Issakaba returns.



The Issakaba movie is a classic for a lot of reasons. From the &#8220;Issakaba&#8221; chant and charm that perpetrators wore before being tortured to death to all the parables, there are so many details to divulge here. 



There are over 100 local Nigerian parables used in the Issakaba. Igbo chants were also used to highlight most of the scenes in the movie.



Also, it was through mere run-in conversations, without any surveys that the popularity of most films was revealed in the 90s Nigeria. Issakaba was one of those movies. It drew attention across Nigeria due to the reality it put on screen.



Issakaba can be considered a successful film in its time and Sam Dede who plays the lead character, Ebube gave so much personality to the character.



<figure class="wp-block-video"><video controls loop src="https://content.culturays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/issakaba-sam-dede.mp4"></video></figure>



Bringing movies back to a time when Nollywood had modified its cinema system would show how much people appreciate films like Issakaba. 



The first two parts of Issakaba, released in 1999 and 2001, respectively, are highly rated by Nigerians. The audiences are keen to see what comes next.

Sam Dede who plays the lead character, Ebube gave so much personality to the character. Photo: Sam Dede

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