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.
Honestly, 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.
Oh 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.
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.
A 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.
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.
Most of his fanboys probably can’t recognize his voice.