Former President Trump, who has been a skeptic of artificial intelligence, disclosed this week that he actually used AI to rewrite one of his speeches, but still finds the technology “alarming.”
“What he does is so crazy. Now, it can also actually be used for good. I mean, things can happen. I had a speech rewritten by the AI out there,” Trump said on social media influencer Logan Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast.
Trump described how “one of the important people” showed him how it could be used.
“He clicks, clicks, clicks, and about 15 seconds later he shows me my speech, written so beautifully, that I said, ‘I’m going to use this.’ I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump said. “The result is more beautiful writing, so one industry that I think will disappear is these wonderful speechwriters. I’ve never seen anything like it so quickly. In a matter of literally minutes, it’s done. It’s a little scary.”
In February, Trump called artificial intelligence “perhaps the most dangerous thing there is” during an interview with Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo.
As political campaigns ramp up, some political and technology observers have been sounding alarms about the potential for AI to be used deceptively to influence elections.
Trump, in his “Impaulsive” interview on Thursday, elaborated on his fears and fascination with AI.
“I saw a picture of myself promoting a product and I didn’t know. The voice was perfect. The lips moved perfectly with each word,” Trump said. “And that’s scary.”
Trump also said he met with technology industry executives, including some who are among his donors, in California and discussed AI.
“I actually met some amazing people and…that’s what everyone’s talking about with all the technology. These are the real tech people and they are talking about AI,” he said. “I’ve seen things that are so…you wouldn’t even think were possible.”
“They might do a commercial. I saw that… and I said, ‘Did I do that commercial? Did I forget I did that commercial?’ It’s so unbelievable.”
Trump described a more alarming hypothetical scenario in which a deepfake could cause global chaos: “If you are the president of the United States and ‘you’ announce that 13 missiles have been sent to — we won’t use the name of a country — we just sent nuclear missiles somewhere and they will reach their targets in 12 minutes and 59 seconds.”
He said he asked tech billionaire Elon Musk about the idea.
“I asked Elon, ‘Is there any way for Russia or China to say it’s not really President Trump?’ He said there’s no way,” Trump said.
Furthermore, Trump lamented that environmental interests could hamper the US’s ability to harness technology ahead of other countries like China.
“We have a lot of people trying to hold us back,” Trump said. “It takes enormous amounts of electricity to do AI.”
“It’s a really powerful thing, AI, so let’s see how it all works,” he added.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
