The lengthy videos are posted under the banner of Tax-Information, which has no internet presence except empty Facebook and Instagram accounts, and is just a fake front from an anonymous user set up at the beginning of January. The videos feature pure rip-offs of Neidle with a ridiculous voice over that sounds nothing like the tax expert and is clearly fake and AI generated.

What is worse, not only is the content creator ripping off Neidle, the information on the videos is rubbish, not is it inaccurate and misleading covering topics from national insurance changes to HMRC late filing penalties, but the videos run to 25 minutes.

Neidle told Business & Accountancy Daily: ‘It’s a very weird experience. I doubt this is going to harm anyone; but there’s obvious potential for fraud here - so it’s odd that YouTube make it so hard to report AI impersonation.’

The videos are coming in for ridicule with the daft voice overs and the few people who have viewed the channel have left comments like ‘this video is fraudulent misrepresentation’ to ‘fake this is not Dan Neidle’ and ‘crappy deepfake with false facts’.

On X, Neidle urged people to report the YouTube channel which is using AI to impersonate him. This can be done by selecting a particular video or the channel YouTube and selecting the three dots on right hand side, then ‘Report’.

However, YouTube does not have an option on the report function to state that the video is an ‘AI impersonation’. There are misinformation, defamation and hateful or abusive content, for example, but nothing AI related. In addition, the legal option is only available for use by the victim of the abuse.

Neidle is not the only target of this fake company with no UK presence; it has posted videos in the last few days on Canadian tax, presented by an AI generated Rami Sethi, the finance expert and presenter of How to Get Rich on Netflix, and Mark J Kohler, a US based small business tax lawyer, author and national speaker.  

YouTube has protections and guardrails on the use of AI on videos, but this requires disclosure and labelling by the content generator.

YouTube’s AI policy states: ‘We require that creators disclose when realistic content is made with altered or synthetic media, including where gen AI Labels may then appear within the video description information. If content is related to sensitive topics like health, news, elections or finance, we may also display a label on the video itself.

‘We’ve also made updates to our privacy standards that make it possible to request the removal of AI-generated or other synthetic or altered content that simulates an identifiable individual, including their face or voice, using our privacy request process.

‘Not all content will be removed from YouTube, and we consider a variety of factors when evaluating these requests. This could include whether the content is parody or satire, whether the person making the request can be uniquely identified or whether it features a public official or well-known individual, in which case there may be a higher bar.’

While users can report videos where they identify AI impersonations, only the individual featured in the video can ask YouTube to remove the videos posted by Tax-Information.

YouTube guidance, How YouTube is Approaching AI Responsibly