Tatiana Elizabeth has accused white influencer Lauren Blake of not being ‘honest’ after she said AI was to blame for her face appearing on the black model’s body in a photo posted to social media this week.
The face of Blake, an OnlyFans model, was suspiciously superimposed onto a photo of Elizabeth at the 2024 US Open in New York. It was also incorrectly tagged as being at last week’s Miami Open.
Although Blake claimed to take ‘full responsibility’ on Wednesday, she also blamed 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 since been removed and, in her own statement, Blake said she reached out to apologize to influencer Elizabeth. But Elizabeth doesn’t appear to be buying it.
Tatiana Elizabeth’s body and picture was used by a white influencer on social media this week
The face of Lauren Blake, an OnlyFans model, was superimposed onto a photo of Elizabeth
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
‘I don’t think it’s coming from a sincere place,’ Elizabeth told TMZ. ‘I think she just wants the situation to blow over and to get back to scheduled programming.’
‘I don’t think she was honest. I don’t think she is authentic in her apology. I think she’s just saying what she thinks she needs to say in order to move past this.’
Elizabeth, who also revealed she was invited to the US Open on that occasion by Serena Williams, continued: ‘That was a very exciting experience for me, and I think that historically, black women have been copied, we’ve been used as an inspo, all these things, and we don’t get our due respect or our credit.
‘I’m working ten times as hard as a black woman to be able to be in these spaces, and you get to just take that in an instant?! I don’t think that’s okay.’
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. 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 part-time DAZN correspondent 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. Blake added on Wednesday that said reached out to apologize to Elizabeth.
‘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.’
