Elon Musk has been accused of violating the policies of his social platform, X, by sharing a fake video that uses an artificial intelligence (AI) voice impersonating Vice President Harris to insult her campaign and President Biden.
The video Musk shared on Friday mocks the Harris campaign's election ads and features a voiceover calling Biden “demented” and Harris “the ultimate diversity hire.”
The video does not include a disclaimer about using AI to imitate Harris' voice, but the original post from the account @MrReaganUSA calls it a parody. Musk makes no such distinction in his own post, which appears to violate X-Site's policy banning “misleading media.”
The Harris campaign blamed Musk for the video.
“We believe what the American people want is the real freedom, opportunity and security that VP Harris is providing, not the false, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump,” campaign spokeswoman Mia Ellenberg said in an email.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (Democrat) also condemned the post and said such videos should be illegal.
“It should be illegal to manipulate voices in these 'ads',” he says. I wrote to X“We'll sign the bill in the next few weeks and see if that gets done.”
Musk fired back at Governor Newsom's promise to ban the videos with a harsh response early Monday morning.
“I checked with Professor Sagon Deesnutz, a world-renowned authority, and he said parody is legal in the US,” Musk wrote.
The video features a number of attacks against Harris.
“I, Kamala Harris, am your Democratic candidate for president because Joe Biden finally showed his age in the debates,” she says in the video, imitating Harris' voice. “I was elected because I'm the ultimate diversity hire. I'm a woman and a person of color, so if you criticize anything, I say you're a sexist and a racist.”
Federal regulators have stepped up efforts to crack down on the use of deepfake technology to impersonate politicians after a man used an automated call sounding like Biden's voice in an attempt to reduce voter turnout in the New Hampshire primary earlier this year.
Public Citizen co-executive director Robert Weissman told The Associated Press that the post could be misleading to the public.
“I think this is definitely not a joke,” Wiseman said. “I don't think most people who see this would think it was a joke. It's not good, but it's good enough. And it's because it relates to the existing themes surrounding her that most people believe it's real.”
Public Citizen has advocated for federal regulation of generative AI, and Weissman said the video was “the kind of thing we've been warning about.”
The video is a reminder of growing concerns about deepfakes and AI technology in political advertising, with ads using the technology already being used in the 2024 U.S. election cycle as well as elections abroad.
The Federal Communications Commission last week advanced a proposal that would require advertisers to disclose the use of AI in their TV and radio ads, and already bans the use of imitation voices in robocalls.
“Bad actors are already using AI technology in robocalls to deceive and misinform consumers, which is why we want to put in place rules to help consumers avoid these nuisance calls and make informed decisions,” FCC Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel said earlier this month.
The FCC's proposal would not apply to ads or videos online or on streaming services, including the video shared by Musk.
Update: 10:18am
