00:00Who is Amelia, the AI schoolgirl meme spreading across Europe's social media?
00:09There's an AI character quietly spreading through niche corners of X and Facebook,
00:14and her identity changes depending on the country.
00:17In the Netherlands, she appears as Emma.
00:19In Germany, Maria, sometimes dressed in a traditional Bavarian dirndl.
00:24And in Ireland, another version attacks the country's prime minister,
00:27calling him a mouthpiece for Brussels.
00:30Ireland belongs to the Irish. See you later for more crack.
00:34But all the characters have the same message,
00:36that life in their countries is under threat from mass immigration
00:40and that their respective governments are failing to stop it.
00:43Together, these posts have already generated thousands of views
00:46and they trace back to a character in the UK.
00:49Her name is Amelia and she's appeared in dozens of videos, images and cartoons
00:54waving a British flag, criticising migrants and calling for the UK to adopt ICE,
00:59the US's immigration enforcement agency.
01:02But Amelia didn't start as a meme.
01:04She comes from an educational game called Pathways,
01:07created by an organisation called Shoutout UK
01:10and funded by the Home Office to prevent extremism.
01:13Players move through simulated social media scenarios,
01:16choosing how to respond to posts and messages.
01:19Shoutout UK says some of the claims circulating online are misleading.
01:24Amelia was not designed to promote political views
01:26and the game doesn't report students for holding opinions.
01:29It's said that the meme-ification and sexualisation of Amelia
01:33has been driven by coordinated propaganda networks
01:36and that it's even led to threats against their staff.
01:39Despite that, new versions of the character continue to appear,
01:42spreading similarly misleading claims and rhetoric.
01:45The Cube has tried to reach out to the creators of the meme
01:48who didn't respond to our requests for comment.
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