Tesla CEO Elon Musk has come under fire for sharing an altered video featuring Vice President Kamala Harris. The video, originally posted by YouTuber Mr. Reagan, uses artificial intelligence-generated audio to create a false narrative about Harris’s campaign.
The new video contains fragments of the latest campaign video of Kamala Harris but with a voice-over that sounds like Harris mocking Joe Biden and herself. In the original video on YouTube, Harris is giving commentary and breaking into BeyoncĂ©’s song âFreedom. â
On the other hand, the manipulated video has a voice sounding like Harrisâs, saying, âI, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate.â
The voiceover goes on to say that Harris was probably hired because she is a minority and implies that criticizing her would be sexist and racist. It also makes fun of her way of speaking, saying that she is âtrying to be blackâ and doing the “Barack Obama impression.”
Harrisâs campaign responds to criticism and defends her goals
Some Republican commentators have recently referred to Harris as the âDEI candidateâ, implying that her race and gender were the deciding factors for her nomination. In response, Harrisâs campaign representative Mia Ehrenberg criticized Musk and the former president, stating that the people of the United States want real freedom, opportunities, and protection which Harris wants to deliver to them rather than fake news.
In response to the backlash and suggestions that such manipulations should be illegal, Musk defended his actions. He quoted the fictional character Professor Suggon Deeznutz, stating that parody is still legal in the United States.
Mr. Reaganâs original post has been viewed 18 million times, while Muskâs repost, which did not have the âparodyâ disclaimer and simply had the caption âAmazing,â has received over 130 million views.
AI-generated fake news emerges as a global issue in elections
The incident shows the growing concerns over the misuse of artificial intelligence. Hany Farid, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, said that while the voice generated by the AI was of high quality, he was worried about possible misuse of it. He pointed out that despite the fact that many people may not think that the voice is indeed Harrisâs, the use of her voice in the video is quite powerful.
Senator Amy Klobuchar also joined the debate stating, that if Musk and X do not label manipulated content then they will be in violation of X policy and the manipulation of content will spike with AI during election periods.
AI-generated fake news is not limited to the United States. Fake news has been generated through deep fake technology across the world, with cases being recorded in Slovakia and India.
The altered voice content has also been used in the presidential campaign before, such as a robocall that deceived the public to be Biden and discouraged voters from voting in the New Hampshire primary.
