A manipulated video mimicking the voice of US Vice President Kamala Harris saying the words she didn’t say has raised concerns about the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to mislead about the US presidential election.
The video gained attention after tech billionaire Elon Musk shared it on his social media platform X on Friday, without explicitly stating that it was originally released as a parody. However, the video uses many of the same visuals as the actual ad that Harris, a likely Democratic presidential candidate, released last week launching her campaign. However, the voice-over in the video is replaced by a different voice that convincingly impersonates Harris.
I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate.
It claims that Harris is a “diversity hire” as she is a woman and a person of colour. The video also says she doesn’t know “the first thing about running the country.” It retains the “Harris for President” branding and also contains some authentic past clips of Harris.
The widely circulated video is an example of how realistic images, videos, or audio clips created with AI have been used to both mock and mislead about politics. It shows that high-quality AI tools have become much more widely available, but there has still been little federal action to regulate their use. As a result, the rules governing the use of AI in politics are largely left to states and social media platforms.
The video also raises questions about how best to handle content that blurs the boundaries of what is considered appropriate use of AI, especially if it falls into the category of satire. The original user who posted the video, known as Mr Reagan, disclosed on YouTube and on X that the edited video is a parody. However, Musk did not indicate that in his post.
Regulating AI use
Musk’s post, which the platform says has been viewed more than 123 million times, only includes the caption “This is amazing” with a laughing emoji. The billionaire later added:
I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America.
Some online users wondered if his post violated X’s policy, which read that users “may not share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.”
The policy has an exception for memes and satire unless they cause “significant confusion about the authenticity of the media.” According to University of California, Berkeley, digital forensics expert Hany Farid, such videos demonstrate the power of generative AI and deepfakes.
“The AI-generated voice is very good. Even though most people won’t believe it is VP Harris’ voice, the video is that much more powerful when the words are in her voice.”
Rob Weissman, co-president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, disagreed with Farid, saying he believed many people would be fooled by the video.
I don’t think that’s obviously a joke. I’m certain that most people looking at it don’t assume it’s a joke. The quality isn’t great, but it’s good enough. And precisely because it feeds into preexisting themes that have circulated around her, most people will believe it to be real.
Congress has yet to pass legislation on AI in politics, and federal agencies have taken only limited steps, leaving much of the existing US regulation to the states.
In addition to X, other social media companies also developed policies regarding synthetic and manipulated media hosted on their platforms. For example, users of video platform YouTube must disclose whether they used generative AI to create videos or face suspension.
