Skip Navigation
politics Politics @beehaw.org
0x815 @feddit.org

A manipulated video shared by Elon Musk on X -viewed more than 123 million times- mimics U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ voice, raising concerns about AI in politics

Archived link

A manipulated video that mimics the voice of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris saying things she did not say is raising concerns about the power of artificial intelligence to mislead with Election Day about three months away.

The video gained attention after tech billionaire Elon Musk shared it on his social media platform X on Friday evening without explicitly noting it was originally released as parody.

The video uses many of the same visuals as a real ad that Harris, the likely Democratic president nominee, released last week launching her campaign. But the video swaps out the voice-over audio with another voice that convincingly impersonates Harris.

“I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate,” the voice says in the video. It claims Harris is a “diversity hire” because she is a woman and a person of color, and it says she doesn’t know “the first thing about running the country.” The video retains “Harris for President” branding. It also adds in some authentic past clips of Harris.

Mia Ehrenberg, a Harris campaign spokesperson, said: “We believe the American people want the real freedom, opportunity and security Vice President Harris is offering; not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.”

[...]

The video also raises questions about how to best handle content that blurs the lines of what is considered an appropriate use of AI, particularly if it falls into the category of satire.

The original user who posted the video, a YouTuber known as Mr Reagan, has disclosed both on YouTube and on X that the manipulated video is a parody. But Musk’s post, which has been viewed more than 123 million times, according to the platform, only includes the caption “This is amazing” with a laughing emoji.

18 comments

  • I wonder how nobody was concerned about this possibility up until now...

    • It's been brought up and mentioned a few times, but it just gets kind of swept under the rug. The crazy part is, this has all been doable basically since around 2 months after the boom in ~April of '21 (or maybe '22 the years have really muddled me), but has only been getting easier.

      Back when there were some version of this done with Trump and other politicians, the common consensus among the AI-inclined was basically, "oh, well, the thing is if we just make so much of it that none of it seems real then we'll be able to tell what's real from what isn't and everyone will see how obvious it is." Without realizing that people on Facebook will see a 256p image and think the messiah is real and God himself told them to believe it.

      The scary part is there doesn't really seem to be an effective way to stop this. Running AI locally is the best way to do it, which inherently creates the risk that you have to trust that people won't abuse it to make deepfakes. I think even if it were banned it wouldn't matter, since there's probably a high chance it's not even entirely done in the U.S. (I would say mostly, but not entirely, that just seems improbable). Real videos can't exactly get some sort of Government Seal since they'd just be replicated and I'm not sure that the average person would be able to understand the MD5 checksum and would probably even think that's the fake one.

      • Real videos can't exactly get some sort of Government Seal

        Sam Altman from Open AI tried to give us a "seal of Made by Humans", but everyone balked at WorldCoin and scanning people's biometrics with a floating orb... so here we are.

      • The crazy part is, this has all been doable basically since around 2 months after the boom in April of '21 (or maybe '22 the years have really muddled me)

        I know, this possibility has got me worried ever since then. And these things will get harder and harder to spot as the technology moves forward.

        I think even if it were banned it wouldn't matter, since there's probably a high chance it's not even entirely done in the U.S.

        Of course. The technology is out there in the wild, and everyone willing to use it for their purpose will do just that, whether for good or bad. Imo I think this is a highly complex issue with no easy solution.

        MD5 checksum

        This is pretty much useless on everything uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or other mainstream social media platforms.

      • average person would be able to understand the MD5 checksum

        Well, it ought to be just yet another skill in the modern world such as reading, critical thinking, media literacy, paying your taxes, etc. I think just saying "average person won't understand this" is a bit of a cop out. Like, yes, you're right, but there is no other way around this, it needs to be implemented as a core feature in social media, the verifications of origins.

        This stuff isn't just going to get better by itself. AI will only get better at faking as time goes on.

18 comments