Elon Musk shares controversial AI-altered video of Kamala Harris

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has come under fire for sharing an altered video featuring Vice President Kamala Harris. The video, originally posted by YouTuber Mr. Reagan, uses artificial intelligence-generated audio to create a false narrative about Harris’s campaign.

The new video contains fragments of the latest campaign video of Kamala Harris but with a voice-over that sounds like Harris mocking Joe Biden and herself. In the original video on YouTube, Harris is giving commentary and breaking into Beyoncé’s song “Freedom. ” 

On the other hand, the manipulated video has a voice sounding like Harris’s, saying, “I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate.”

The voiceover goes on to say that Harris was probably hired because she is a minority and implies that criticizing her would be sexist and racist. It also makes fun of her way of speaking, saying that she is ‘trying to be black’ and doing the “Barack Obama impression.”

Harris’s campaign responds to criticism and defends her goals

Some Republican commentators have recently referred to Harris as the ‘DEI candidate’, implying that her race and gender were the deciding factors for her nomination. In response, Harris’s campaign representative Mia Ehrenberg criticized Musk and the former president, stating that the people of the United States want real freedom, opportunities, and protection which Harris wants to deliver to them rather than fake news. 

In response to the backlash and suggestions that such manipulations should be illegal, Musk defended his actions. He quoted the fictional character Professor Suggon Deeznutz, stating that parody is still legal in the United States. 

Mr. Reagan’s original post has been viewed 18 million times, while Musk’s repost, which did not have the ‘parody’ disclaimer and simply had the caption ‘Amazing,’ has received over 130 million views. 

AI-generated fake news emerges as a global issue in elections

The incident shows the growing concerns over the misuse of artificial intelligence. Hany Farid, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, said that while the voice generated by the AI was of high quality, he was worried about possible misuse of it. He pointed out that despite the fact that many people may not think that the voice is indeed Harris’s, the use of her voice in the video is quite powerful.

Senator Amy Klobuchar also joined the debate stating, that if Musk and X do not label manipulated content then they will be in violation of X policy and the manipulation of content will spike with AI during election periods.

AI-generated fake news is not limited to the United States. Fake news has been generated through deep fake technology across the world, with cases being recorded in Slovakia and India. 

The altered voice content has also been used in the presidential campaign before, such as a robocall that deceived the public to be Biden and discouraged voters from voting in the New Hampshire primary.