NEW YORK — A manipulated video that imitates the voice of Vice President Kamala Harris saying things she didn’t say is raising concerns about the power of artificial intelligence cheat with election day in about three months.
The video gained attention after technology billionaire Elon Musk shared on its social media platform X on Friday night, without explicitly noting that it was originally released as a parody.
The video uses many of the same visuals as a real ad that Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, launched last week launching its campaign. But the video swaps the voiceover audio for another voice that convincingly impersonates Harris.
“I, Kamala Harris, am your Democratic presidential candidate because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility in the debate,” says the voice in the video. She claims Harris is a “diversity hire” because she is a woman and a person of color, and says she knows “nothing about running the country.” The video maintains the “Harris for President” brand. He also adds some authentic early clips of Harris.
Mia Ehrenberg, a spokeswoman for the Harris campaign, said in an email to The Associated Press: “We believe the American people want the true freedom, opportunity and security that Vice President Harris is offering; not the fake and manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.”
The widely shared video is an example of how AI-generated images, videos, or audio clips have been used to both mock and mislead about politics as the United States approaches the presidential election. It exposes how, as high-quality AI tools have become more accessibilityThere remains a lack of significant federal action to date to regulate its use, leaving the rules guiding AI in politics largely to states and social media platforms.
The video also raises questions about how best to deal with content that blurs the lines of what is considered an appropriate use of AI, especially if it falls into the category of satire.
The original user who posted the video, a YouTuber known as Mr. Reagan, revealed on both YouTube and 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.
X users who are familiar with the platform may know to click on Musk’s post to access the original user’s post where the disclosure is visible. Musk’s caption doesn’t direct them to do this.
Although some participants in X’s “community note” feature for adding context to posts suggested labeling Musk’s post, no such label had been added to it as of Sunday afternoon. Some online users questioned whether his post might violate X Policieswhich states that users “may not share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may mislead or confuse people and cause harm.”
The policy has an exception for memes and satire, as long as they do not cause “significant confusion about the authenticity of the media.”
Musk endorsed former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, earlier this month. Neither Reagan nor Musk immediately responded to emailed requests for comment Sunday.
Two experts specializing in AI-generated media analyzed the audio from the fake ad and confirmed that much of it was generated using AI technology.
One of them, University of California, Berkeley digital forensics expert Hany Farid, said the video shows the power of generative AI and deepfakes.
“The AI-generated voice is very good,” he said in an email. “Even though most people don’t believe it’s Vice President Harris’ voice, the video is much more powerful when the words are in her voice.”
He said generative AI companies that make voice cloning and other AI tools available to the public should do better to ensure their services are not used in ways that could harm people or democracy.
Rob Weissman, co-president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, disagreed with Farid, saying he thought many people would be fooled by the video.
“I don’t think this is obviously a joke,” Weissman said in an interview. “I’m sure most people who look at this don’t assume it’s a joke. The quality isn’t great, but it’s good enough. And precisely because it feeds into pre-existing themes that have circulated around it, most people will believe it is real.”
Weissman, whose organization has been advocating for Congress, federal agencies and states to regulate generative AI, said the video is “the kind of thing we’ve been warning about.”
Other AI generative deepfakes, both in the US and elsewhere, have reportedly attempted to influence voters with misinformation, humor, or both. In Slovakia in 2023, fake audio clips impersonated a candidate discussing plans to rig an election and raise the price of beer days before the vote. In Louisiana in 2022, a political action committee satirical advertisement superimposed the face of a Louisiana mayoral candidate onto an actor portraying him as an underachieving high school student.
Congress has not yet passed legislation on AI in politics, and federal agencies have taken only limited action, leaving most existing US regulation to the states. More than a third of states have created their own laws regulate the use of AI in campaigns and elections, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In addition to X, other social media companies have also created policies regarding synthetic and manipulated media shared on their platforms. Users of the video platform YouTube, for example, must reveal whether they used generative artificial intelligence to create videos or facial suspension.
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