A manipulated video shared by Elon Musk on X -viewed more than 123 million times- mimics U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ voice, raising concerns about AI in politics
A manipulated video shared by Elon Musk on X -viewed more than 123 million times- mimics U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ voice, raising concerns about AI in politics
A manipulated video that mimics the voice of Vice President Kamala Harris saying things she did not say is raising concerns about the power of artificial intelligence to mislead just three months away from November’s elections.
A manipulated video that mimics the voice of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris saying things she did not say is raising concerns about the power of artificial intelligence to mislead with Election Day about three months away.
The video gained attention after tech billionaire Elon Musk shared it on his social media platform X on Friday evening without explicitly noting it was originally released as parody.
The video uses many of the same visuals as a real ad that Harris, the likely Democratic president nominee, released last week launching her campaign. But the video swaps out the voice-over audio with another voice that convincingly impersonates Harris.
“I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate,” the voice says in the video. It claims Harris is a “diversity hire” because she is a woman and a person of color, and it says she doesn’t know “the first thing about running the country.” The video retains “Harris for President” branding. It also adds in some authentic past clips of Harris.
Mia Ehrenberg, a Harris campaign spokesperson, said: “We believe the American people want the real freedom, opportunity and security Vice President Harris is offering; not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.”
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The video also raises questions about how to best handle content that blurs the lines of what is considered an appropriate use of AI, particularly if it falls into the category of satire.
The original user who posted the video, a YouTuber known as Mr Reagan, has disclosed both on YouTube and on 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.
Harris should share a video that mimics Elon's voice talking about how he loves and supports his trans daughter and accepts her unconditionally as a woman.
Edit: Several people seem to have taken this seriously. For clarity, it was a joke. It would be really unfair and inappropriate to weaponize her in this way without her consent. I regret the ambiguity.
29Honestly, I would like the world to keep Vivian out of this. (I wanted to say 'his daughter'. But Vivian is right. He's just too obnoxious to be related to.) Elon has done enough damage to her by throwing her to his band of online trolls, because she chose her own life instead of following his wishes.
24Oh for sure. Actually doing this is really unfair to her, and shouldn't happen.
I also appreciate your reasoning for calling her Vivian. Well said.
3
That only hurts his pride.
It needs to be an audio of a plausible sounding board meeting where he talks about the unreliability of Tesla and Space-x, and how they may need to raise a couple of million to get out of it.
The only way these fuckers learn is if you mess with their wallet.
17A couple of million? You're talking about pocket change for them. You should look at the grants and subsidies he avails from the government to keep them afloat. That should also give you an idea about a major source of his funds - your taxes.
11
Not sure if I'd want to pull his daughter into this mess but in general answering with an equally faked video would be a genius marketing stunt. Maybe a video where Elon writes 'I must not share manipulated videos' to a chalk board like Bart in the Simpsons.
13Most of his fanboys probably can't recognize his voice.
4
I don't know why everyone's surprised. What were you expecting from Elon? Ethics and morality?
21I wonder how nobody was concerned about this possibility up until now...
11It's been brought up and mentioned a few times, but it just gets kind of swept under the rug. The crazy part is, this has all been doable basically since around 2 months after the boom in ~April of '21 (or maybe '22 the years have really muddled me), but has only been getting easier.
Back when there were some version of this done with Trump and other politicians, the common consensus among the AI-inclined was basically, "oh, well, the thing is if we just make so much of it that none of it seems real then we'll be able to tell what's real from what isn't and everyone will see how obvious it is." Without realizing that people on Facebook will see a 256p image and think the messiah is real and God himself told them to believe it.
The scary part is there doesn't really seem to be an effective way to stop this. Running AI locally is the best way to do it, which inherently creates the risk that you have to trust that people won't abuse it to make deepfakes. I think even if it were banned it wouldn't matter, since there's probably a high chance it's not even entirely done in the U.S. (I would say mostly, but not entirely, that just seems improbable). Real videos can't exactly get some sort of Government Seal since they'd just be replicated and I'm not sure that the average person would be able to understand the MD5 checksum and would probably even think that's the fake one.
11The crazy part is, this has all been doable basically since around 2 months after the boom in ~April of '21 (or maybe '22 the years have really muddled me)
I know, this possibility has got me worried ever since then. And these things will get harder and harder to spot as the technology moves forward.
I think even if it were banned it wouldn't matter, since there's probably a high chance it's not even entirely done in the U.S.
Of course. The technology is out there in the wild, and everyone willing to use it for their purpose will do just that, whether for good or bad. Imo I think this is a highly complex issue with no easy solution.
MD5 checksum
This is pretty much useless on everything uploaded to Facebook, Instagram or other mainstream social media platforms.
3average person would be able to understand the MD5 checksum
Well, it ought to be just yet another skill in the modern world such as reading, critical thinking, media literacy, paying your taxes, etc. I think just saying "average person won't understand this" is a bit of a cop out. Like, yes, you're right, but there is no other way around this, it needs to be implemented as a core feature in social media, the verifications of origins.
This stuff isn't just going to get better by itself. AI will only get better at faking as time goes on.
3
I mean it was pretty damn funny and it was pretty clearly labeled as PARODY...
I don't see how any reasonable thinking human could think it was real.
1The original user who posted the video [...] has disclosed [...] 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. [...] I don’t think that’s obviously a joke,” [co-president of the advocacy group Public Citizen Rob] Weissman said [...]. “I’m certain that most people looking at it don’t assume it’s a joke. The quality isn’t great, but it’s good enough. And precisely because it feeds into preexisting themes that have circulated around her, most people will believe it to be real.”
6How was racism and sexism funny? Implying that she is only a DEI hire is funny?
3