The doctored video features a narrator impersonating Kamala Harris and includes false claims that she did not make.
advertisementA doctored video imitating the voice of US Vice President Kamala Harris has raised concerns about the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to mislead voters during elections.
The video gained attention after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared it on his social media platform X on Friday night, without specifying that it was originally published as a parody.
Musk later reposted the video with a caption stating that the original poster called it a parody, adding that “parody is legal in America.”
The video uses footage from Harris' actual presidential campaign ads, but replaces the narration with an impersonator of a potential Democratic presidential nominee.
“We believe what the American people want is the real freedom, opportunity and security that Vice President Harris is providing, not the false, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump,” Mia Ellenberg, a spokeswoman for the Harris campaign, said in an email to The Associated Press.
The widely shared video is one example of how realistic AI-generated content is now easier to create and is being used to parody and mislead people about politics in the midst of an election.
Some online users were surprised at Musk's post. X's PolicyIt says that users “must not share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive, confuse, or cause harm to anyone.”
The policy makes an exception for memes and satire, as long as they don't cause “significant confusion about the veracity of the media.”
In the video Musk first posted, he did not specify that it was a parody, simply introducing the video with the words “This is awesome.”
The tech billionaire endorsed Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump earlier this month.
Neither the YouTuber who posted the video, known as “Mister Reagan,” nor Musk immediately responded to requests for comment on Sunday.
“Just like we've been warning you about.”
Two experts specializing in AI-generated media examined the audio from the fake ads and found that many of them were generated using AI technology.
One of them, Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley, said the video shows the power of generative AI and deepfakes.
“The AI-generated audio is so good,” he said in an email. “Most people would not believe it is VP Harris' voice, but having the words in her voice makes the video that much more powerful.”
He said generative AI companies that offer voice cloning tools and other AI tools to the public should do more to ensure their services are not used in ways that harm people and democracy.
Rob Weissman, co-executive director of the advocacy group Public Citizen, disagreed with Farid and said many people would be fooled by the video.
“I think this is obviously not a joke,” Wiseman said in an interview. “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 precisely because it relates to the existing themes surrounding her that most people believe it's real.”
Weissman, whose group has advocated for Congress, federal agencies and state governments to regulate generative AI, said the video was “the kind of thing we've been warning about.”
