Elon Musk shared a video on X which mimics the voice of Kamala Harris raising concerns over the effect AI deep fakes could have on the upcoming US elections.
Musk has publicly endorsed Donald Trump in his bid for a second term and has used his X platform to share his political and social views together with his 191 million followers.
The video showed real visuals from Harris’ campaign ads however the voice-over uses an AI-generated clone of her voice. The voice imitation is impressively accurate because it has ‘Harris’ say “I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the talk.”
When the maker of the video, a YouTuber often known as Mr Reagan, posted the video on X and YouTube he disclosed that it was a parody. When Musk reposted it he simply said, “This is amazing” and added a laughing emoji, but no disclosure that the video was manipulated and intended as a parody.
Musk has been criticized for sharing the AI-manipulated video with predictable outrage from Democrats. California Governor Gavin Newsom said his “Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models” bill, also often known as SB 1047, will address the risks inherent in AI manipulated videos.
X’s policies state that “You may not share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that will deceive or confuse people and result in harm (“misleading media”).” The terms state that memes and satire don’t violate these policies “provided these don’t cause significant confusion in regards to the authenticity of the media.”
Musk obviously felt that the satirical nature of the video was self-evident.
I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America 🤷♂️ https://t.co/OCBewC3XYD
Not everyone agrees that the thousands and thousands of people that watched the video would understand that it’s an AI-manipulated joke.
Rob Weissman, co-president of the advocacy group Public Citizen said, “I don’t think that’s obviously a joke. I’m certain that the majority people taking a look at it don’t assume it’s a joke. The quality isn’t great, nevertheless it’s adequate. And precisely since it feeds into preexisting themes which have circulated round her, most individuals will consider it to be real.”
Last week the FCC released a proposed rule requiring disclosure of AI-generated content in political ads on radio and TV.
Weissman said, “Consumers have a right to know when AI tools are getting used within the political ads they see on the airwaves. That’s the common sense foundation for the FCC’s desperately needed proposed rules on AI broadcast transparency.
“We’re barreling towards elections which could also be distorted, and even decided, by political deepfakes. Yet that is a wholly avoidable dystopia, if regulators simply demand disclosures when AI is utilized in political communications, including in broadcast TV and radio ads.”
Was the Mr Reagan video a political ad, a joke, or a little bit of each?
Political satire has been around for hundreds of years but cartoons or a standup comic doing an impression are easy to inform from the actual thing. Videos just like the one Musk shared blur the lines considerably.
As AI-generated voices and videos keep improving, expect the appetite for political gamesmanship and hiding behind the ‘I used to be only joking’ defense to ramp up.
