White influencer who was caught using AI to swap her face onto photo of black woman’s body breaks silence
Lauren Blake, the white influencer whose face was suspiciously superimposed onto a photo of a black model at the 2024 US Open, is finally speaking out about the controversy.
Although Blake claims to take ‘full responsibility,’ she is also blaming an artificial intelligence content system and her ‘team’ for the mishap.
‘That shouldn’t have happened, and I take full responsibility,’ Blake told TMZ. ‘This came from an A.I. content system my team uses to generate images at scale. I did not see the original image or intentionally set out to copy anyone’s work, but that doesn’t change the outcome.
‘I understand this impacted another creator, especially when it comes to respecting original work, and I never want to contribute to that kind of frustration or harm within the creative community that I have been a part of for 10 years,’ she said.
The offending social media post has been removed and in her own statement, Blake said she reached out to apologize to influencer Tatiana Elizabeth, whose 2024 photo was repurposed on Blake’s feed earlier in the week.
‘I take full responsibility for what appears on my platforms,’ Blake said. ‘The post was removed and I have spoken with the creator privately to apologize. I will have more oversight with my agency to ensure my content is handled with the integrity and respect it deserves moving forward.’
This since-deleted Instagram post from Lauren Blake shows an ostensibly doctored photo. While the post is geolocated at the Miami Open, the picture’s background appears to be the US Open in Queens. The picture also includes a body and outfit nearly identical to the 2024 photo
This 2024 Instagram post shows a photo of Tatiana Elizabeth standing at the US Open. The influencer is seen in the photo wearing a white t-shirt and tennis skirt with a green bag
It was nearly two years ago that Elizabeth pictured herself at the US Open tennis tournament in New York – an image she saw again on social media this week.
‘So, this photo to the right is a photo of me at the US Open in 2024,’ Elizabeth, who is African American, said in a self-shot social media video.
She went on to claim she’d been ‘castrated’ by her rival influencer: ‘This photo to the left is a photo that I came across this morning on Instagram of someone who castrated me and decided to use my image and my environment.’
The images are nearly identical.
In hers, Elizabeth is seen wearing a white t-shirt and white tennis skirt with a green-and-white scarf at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens.
Although cropped tighter, the since-deleted post from OnlyFans model, influencer and part-time DAZN correspondent Lauren Blake is almost perfectly congruent to Elizabeth’s, right down to the folds in her green Louis Vuitton purse. The major difference, of course, is that it’s Blake’s face and not Elizabeth’s appearing in this week’s social media post.
‘omg we even have the same tattoo!!!!?’ Elizabeth wrote on X, referring to some ink on her right wrist.
What’s more, Blake tagged the photo as being set in Miami, where the Miami Open recently concluded, but the background is clearly center court in Queens.
‘She geotagged MIAMI as if she’s at the Miami Open,’ Elizabeth wrote, adding that her pic was ‘taken at the US open two years ago.’
Blake (pictured) works as an influencer and an occasional ringside reporter for DAZN
Elizabeth (pictured), who owns her own beauty line, expressed some frustration at the radio silence she’s gotten from Blake, who has deleted the controversial social media post
As Elizabeth said in her video, she assumed there was some artificial intelligence at play when she came across the post.
‘I initially thought that it was one of those faceless AI pages, but come to my realization, this is an actual person with 1.6 million followers at that,’ she said of Blake. ‘And by no means am I trying to bash this girl. Mental health is real, and I’m not a bully.’
While Elizabeth said she isn’t looking to shake Blake, she would like an explanation.
‘I’m just a little perplexed,’ she said. ‘Just want to know what was the reason, has social media got into our heads that much that we are completely disregarding couth?’
Elizabeth, who owns her own beauty line, expressed some frustration at the radio silence she’s gotten from Blake, who has deleted the controversial social media post.
‘This girl has not reached out to me,’ Elizabeth said. ‘She has not apologized, she has not given an explanation and is probably embarrassed, which she should be, but I think that the nice and accountable thing to do would be to reach out and at least apologize to the person whose photo you took. Like, what’s that?’
Blake now claims to have reached out to Elizabeth to offer an apology.
