A manipulated video that mimics the voice of Vice President Kamala Harrissaying 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.
Transcript:
“I, Kamala Harris, senior Democrat candidate for President because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility of debate. Thanks, Joe.
I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire. I’m both a woman and a person of color. So if you criticize anything I say, you’re both sexist and racist.
I may not know the first thing about running the country, but remember, that’s a good thing if you’re a deep state puppet. I had four years under the tutelage of the ultimate deep state puppet, a wonderful mentor, Joe Biden. Joe taught me rule number one, carefully hide your total incompetence.
I take insignificant things and I discuss them as if they’re significant. And I believe that exploring the significance of the insignificant is in itself significant. Talking about the significance of the passage of time, right? The significance of the passage of time. “So when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time, and there is such great significance to the passage of time.”
And Another trick is trying to sound black. I pretend to celebrate Kwanza, and in my speeches, I always do my best Barack Obama impression. “So hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump’s type.”
And okay, look, maybe my work addressing the root causes of the border crisis were catastrophic, but my knowledge of international politics is truly shocking. “The United States shares a very important relationship, which is an alliance with the Republic of North Korea. It is an alliance that is strong and enduring.”
Just remember, when voting this November, it is important to see what can be unburdened by what has been. And by what has been… I mean, Joe Biden. Do you think the country went to over the past four years? You ain’t seen nothing yet. (Cackle).”
It always baffles me to say she’s unqualified when she objectively has more relevant work experience than Trump.
Also the “try to sound black” part is just… there’s a lot to unpack there.
Yes, but woman.
That’s all the convincing the MAGA crowd need to view someone as unqualified for leadership.
You’d have to be astonishingly stupid to think this was real. Unfortunately …
“Never underestimate the power of stupidity in large groups.”
Less stupidity than cynicism.
¿Por Qué No Los Dos?
Cynicism implies you know better but you’re playing along for political gain.
Yeah, it really just depends on who you are talking about. I guess the stupid ones make life easier by eating up whatever bad faith arguments the cynical ones put out there.
It’s MAGA, Trump told us that he loved the uneducated right out of the gate
It’s amazing people don’t see him as a racist manchild.
Musk is just jealous that his shitty gronk can’t do it.
we knew this was coming. no shock it came from this cum rag
I would hope this falls under libel laws and makes Musk culpable for a lawsuit and/or gag order.
I wish he’d take some more LSD. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll turn into a humanitarian.
I would have settled for a lethal dose of fentanyl.
This is, what, how many total times Elon has shared something like this on Twitter where his intention has been (at the very least) dubious?
I find very few reasons to give him the benefit of the doubt here by treating it as some “haha funny meme XD” reaction from him.
Any way to see the video without making an X account and scrolling Musk’s feed? Two things I’d rather not do.
Here’s a direct link to the tweet, but I’m not sure if you can watch the video without an account anymore: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1816974609637417112?s=46&t=EUtgwMByNj4sQbVP9INV-Q
It’s worse than I thought from the article. Outrageously and overtly racist.
Oh, I actually was able to see it without an account-- Thank you for finding/sharing the link!
It’s uh… Pretty much exactly what it sounded like from the article. It’s pretty clear to me that it’s satire and fake, but I’m not sure that it would be to, say, some of my family members.
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Gotta hard disagree with you there, friend… Although I see the merit in that, I think we should be taking examples like this and sharing them around with crystal clear context that:
- This is a troubling blend of real and fake, and it’s easy to not notice which parts are which
- This is a new category of propaganda that we aren’t ready for
- Even though this one is pretty easy to clock as fake satire, it’s not hard to imagine nudging a few degrees away from tongue-in-cheek and toward deliberately deceitful, and holy shit is that going to be scary
Like I know lots of people who don’t know that this sort of thing is even remotely possible, and would have a hard time understanding how to contextualize it, even if they sense something fishy about it. They need to see and hear these deepfake-adjacent materials first hand with context to innoculate against the truly deceptive stuff that they’ll be exposed to.
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I see your point, too! I think to the degree that the story is about Elon showing us who he is, it makes sense to just give the dumpster fire less oxygen to burn… But to the degree that it’s about AI eroding our ability to understand truth, I think we need as much exposure as possible to things like this while we can recognize them.
I think a reasonable person could land in either place in this instance.
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Even though this one is pretty easy to clock as fake satire
By 30s in to the 1m52s video, when she calls Biden a deep state puppet, is where it’ll be obvious to (I hope) 99% of the population. Prob not quite that high though. But yeah. Wanna emphasize it’s not a deepfake of her supposedly spicy stuff…
It’s what an idiot thinks is cunning satire.
It’s dangerous, of course, but don’t want folks to get the wrong message. We might be at an early stage of Musk testing what he can get away with w/r/t political deepfakes - maybe the next one will be dicier. Or maybe not, he can be awful without faking a thing.
Yeah… I think part of the trouble though is that even if people recognize that calling Biden “a deep state puppet” is not plausible, many people don’t know that it’s possible to realistically synthesize a voice like that, so where do they end up?
“Well they probably took some other quote she said out of context, she must have been joking when she said that,” or “They must have cut different clips together” or something like that.
So even people who don’t fully fall for it can still be deceived in a more subtle way. Or as another respondent mentions, over time, you remember her voice saying something dubious, but don’t quite remember where or what. A subtle nudge that can be just as dangerous as buying it at face value.
many people don’t know that it’s possible to realistically synthesize a voice like that
Indeed, 99% was fabulously wishful of me.
subtle nudge
Devious and insidious. Great point.
Yeah like… Maybe 99% (or some high number) would sense that something’s up, but end up with the wrong conclusion. Like how an older family member of mine thought James Cameron’s Avatar had really impressive makeup and costumes and other practical effects… cause he didn’t really understand CGI.
Where he should have landed was something like “My model of how practical effects work can’t adequately explain this,” but instead, his brain made some smaller-but-more-wrong leaps that led him somewhere weird.
I think lots of people are going to experience that same kind of thing with AI-driven propaganda, even when they notice that something is up.
It also feels like there’s something subliminal about it. Like you’re hearing her voice saying she’s a deep state puppet then cut to her actually making a mistake in a speech (but it’s using old school editing techniques there too) and then back to the deepfake voice back to the actual video of her.
Sure when you see it you know which is her and which is the deepfake. But later if you see some of those actual clips again, you might recall seeing it somewhere before and then vaguely recall some of the things the deepfake voice said along with it.
It’s very insidious really. Memories are a weird thing and I don’t know if it’s been studied what kind of effect this sort of thing could have on people. So I don’t know. But it seems plausible that you could create false memories of someone saying something they didn’t say by intercutting things they did say with a deep fake of things they didn’t say.
Yeah, I think that’s exactly right. I don’t think it’s like a sophisticated deliberate psyop or anything like that, but the effect you describe certainly exists.
Most people are only partially paying attention to most of the information they consume, even the smart, thoughtful ones… Combined with the lossy storage of human memory, it’s easy to cache the wrong conclusions when exposed to stuff like this.
What is this 2018? That ship has already sailed.
Surely this is illegal, right? Right??
padme.gif
It might be… But if it wasn’t, someone shouldn’t make a video of Trump talking about that he already won and that no one needs to vote… Please don’t do this! It would be very wrong if someone did this! His supporters might be filled and stay home…
No one do this!
I… hmmmm… I feel like there’s a secret message here waiting to be decoded.
In Minnesota it is illegal up to 90 days before the election.
I don’t know all the state laws, but there are more.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/artificial-intelligence-deepfakes-2024-election-states-rcna129525
That’s for sexual acts. I’m still reading it though, but where does elections come into play?
Edit: found it. Section 2. Sorry.
Sec. 2. [609.771] USE OF DEEP FAKE TECHNOLOGY TO INFLUENCE AN ELECTION.
Subdivision 1. Definitions. (a) As used in this section, the following terms have the meanings given.
(b) “Candidate” means an individual who seeks nomination or election to a federal, statewide, legislative, judicial, or local office including special districts, school districts, towns, home rule charter and statutory cities, and counties.
© “Deep fake” means any video recording, motion-picture film, sound recording, electronic image, or photograph, or any technological representation of speech or conduct substantially derivative thereof:
(1) that is so realistic that a reasonable person would believe it depicts speech or conduct of an individual who did not in fact engage in such speech or conduct; and
(2) the production of which was substantially dependent upon technical means, rather than the ability of another individual to physically or verbally impersonate such individual.
(d) “Depicted individual” means an individual in a deep fake who appears to be engaging in speech or conduct in which the individual did not engage.
Subd. 2. Use of deep fake to influence an election; violation. A person who disseminates a deep fake or enters into a contract or other agreement to disseminate a deep fake is guilty of a crime and may be sentenced as provided in subdivision 3 if the person knows or reasonably should know that the item being disseminated is a deep fake and dissemination:
(1) takes place within 90 days before an election;
(2) is made without the consent of the depicted individual; and
(3) is made with the intent to injure a candidate or influence the result of an election.
Subd. 3. Use of deep fake to influence an election; penalty. A person convicted of violating subdivision 2 may be sentenced as follows:
(1) if the person commits the violation within five years of one or more prior convictions under this section, to imprisonment for not more than five years or to payment of a fine of not more than $10,000, or both;
(2) if the person commits the violation with the intent to cause violence or bodily harm, to imprisonment for not more than one year or to payment of a fine of not more than $3,000, or both; or
(3) in other cases, to imprisonment for not more than 90 days or to payment of a fine of not more than $1,000, or both.
Subd. 4. Injunctive relief. A cause of action for injunctive relief may be maintained against any person who is reasonably believed to be about to violate or who is in the course of violating this section by:
(1) the attorney general;
(2) a county attorney or city attorney;
(3) the depicted individual; or
(4) a candidate for nomination or election to a public office who is injured or likely to be injured by dissemination.
EFFECTIVE DATE. This section is effective August 1, 2023, and applies to crimes committed on or after that date.
So if Musk doesn’t delete his post before (let’s see) August 7, he is still arguably disseminating it and violating the law, huh?
Just read through the part about punishment, and it’d be 90 days in jail and a $1000 fine. Even I could afford that. 🙄
It’s the jail time that’s important. I’d guess Musk would spend a billion dollars to not have to go to jail for 90 days.
Also we’re 100 days out. If Elon did this again within 90 days, and he sent the tweet from Texas or something. Would Minnesota or another state law be able to hold him accountable? Since of course the tweet would be seen across the country. I wonder what would happen. The senate is working on a federal law, but I doubt the house will be very cooperative before the election.
raising concerns about AI in politics
Anyone else more concerned about narcissistic bigoted billionaires in politics? 🙋♂️
Why not both?
Definitely both – although still probably better to be more concerned about the billionaires
That is election fraud and Elon should be in jail.
How isn’t this… disparagement? Or defamation or whatever (I’m not a lawyer).
Oh easy, cuz he’s filthy rich.
Whoever created it is more likely to be able to be successfully prosecuted (assuming they could be identified) than the person or people spreading it.
The person who uploaded it to Twitter labeled it as parody. Musk then retweeted it without that parody marker.
You could argue it isn’t parody, but that is tricker.
Technically, anyone sharing this-who knows it’s fake-should be tried and convicted for election interference and treason.
Any lawyers know if this could be prosecuted? This seems pretty big though I’m not familiar with US’s defamation laws when it comes to politics and deepfakes.
Shouldn’t that guy be trying to save at least one of his companies from the ever increasing explosions of shit and bad management that “somehow” seem to plague them?
How could he do that? He is the bad management.
I’m sure we could think of some ways for him to do that.
By fucking off to Mars and dying there?
That’s high on the list!
Why is there no link to the video? Did he even post that? I’m not even seing it on his Twitter.
Thanks. It doesn’t show up on his profile. And the articles don’t have a link to it. That’s why I couldn’t.
Big Brainlon messes up profiles if not logged in. Super whack out-of-order random Tweets.
Login to dumpsterfire, scroll a bit, there’s the amazing witty satire:
(Am assuming there’s no A/B test stuff going on)
