A manipulated video shared by Musk mimics Harris voice raising concerns about AI in politics

This is a manipulated video that replicates the voice of Kamala Harris, the vice president, to say things that the latter never said, and this comes at a time when Election Day is approximately three months away, thus showing how dangerous AI can be. 
 
The video got attention after the tech billionaire Elon Musk boosted the video on his new social app X several hours after Friday evening but did not pointed out that this video was initially for a parody. 
 
The video employs all the visuals of a real ad that Harris, the probable Democratic presidential candidate, vped last week to announce her intention to run. However that is done the video replaces the voice-over narration for another man doing Harris” voice to a tee. 
 
The video then comes with a message: “I, Kamala Harris, am. your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate. ” Subsequently, it labels her a ‘diversity hire’ because she is a woman and a Black person, and it denies that Harris has ‘any fucking clue about how to run the country’. This video maintains ‘Harris for President’ logos. There is also interspersed some actual past footage of Harris in the news. 
 
Mia Ehrenberg, a Harris campaign spokesperson, said in an email to The Associated Press: The opposition included the following message: “The lying devil, Elon Musk and the ‘former’ President of the United States of America, Donald Trump are shockingly deceiving the American people, while they should be aspiring to that which Kamala Harris is presenting which is the real freedom, opportunity and security. ” 
 
The widely shared video falls among AI generated comical images, videos or audios that have been used to entertain and deceive in regard to politics as America approaches the general election. It lays bare that, while pertinent applications of high-quality AI technologies have dramatically improved over recent years, there has not been sufficient federal activity to date to limit AI’s application in politics, and rules for AI in political processes are still set by states and social media platforms. 
 
As such, the video also prompts a number of thrilling questions on how to make provision for contents that are likely to cause controversy based on the assumption that they are off limit for AI use while, in fact, they are jokes considered under the category of satire. 
 
The original uploader of the clip who is a YouTuber by the name Mr Reagan has stated on YouTube as well as on X that the lipsynched video is a comedic LIP SYNCH clip. However, only the post with the legend ‘This is amazing’ and the smiling emoji can be seen now, though it gathered more than 123 million views per the platform. 
 
Even some X users probably gross of the application know that when they swipe through the Musk’s comment to the original user’s comment where the disclaimer is provided. No such instructions are given by Musk through his caption. 
 
Despite some of the participants in the feature known as “community note” where users are able to add some background information to a post calling for Musk’s post to be labelled, no label had been attached to the post by the said Sunday afternoon. The attempts of people to understand X practices make some internet users of his suspicious whether his post is not against X policies that state that ‘Users may not share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm. ’ 
 
It contains an exclusion for memes and satirical content; however, the understanding is that they cannot result in ‘substantial confusion regarding the genuineness of the media. 
 
Former President Donald Trump is the Republican nominee who Musk endorsed in the earlier this month. Both Mr Reagan and Musk did not reply to emailed requests for comment Sunday. 
 
Two specialists in AI-produced media have listened to the fake advert and stated that a significant portion of it was produced using artificial intelligence. 
 
One of them is Hany Farid, a digital forensician who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley and said that with the video showing a living example of the capabilities of generative AI and deepfakes. 
 
“Well done on the considerable quantity of material; the quality of the AI-generated voice is very good,” he shared in an email. “While most of the audience will shake their heads in disbelief seeing that it is not VP Harris’ voice in the video, it is that much more impactful when the words are spoken in her voice. ” 
 
He noted that generative AI firms engaging in voice cloning and other capabilities should could do more to prevent people from using the technology in ways that are destructive to people or democracy. 
 
Co-president of the advocacy group known as Public Citizen, Rob Weissman assessed Farid’s view in a different way and expressed an opinion that he personally believed many people would be gulled by the video. 
 
“I don’t think that was patently a joke,” Weissman told interviews. “I am sure that those looking at it do not think that is a joke Most of it is of pretty murky quality but it is passable It reiterates something that has been said about her before and hence most of the people would accept it as the truth. ” 
 
Weissman, the head of the organization that has called on Congress, federal agencies, and states to regulate generative AI said the video is the kind of thing that they have been warning about. 
 
Other generative AI deepfakes in both the U. S. and geographically would have shared fake information, humor or both in a bid to sway voters. In Slovakia in 2023, various voice imitated the attempts to scheme the vote and increase the price of beer before election days. An LSU political action committees 2022 advertisement locked a Louisiana mayoral candidate into a car and photo shopped the mayoral candidate’s face onto a body doubled by an actor depicted him as a lazy high school student. 
 
To date, there is no federal legislation governing the use of Ai in political campaign, and the federal administration has made only meager attempts; therefore, most current Us regulation remains state’s regulation. Over one third of the states have drafted specific laws on how AI can be used in campaigns and election, as indicated by the National Conference of State Legislatures. 
 
Apart from X, other social media companies also have formulated some policies on synthetic and manipulated media posted on the social media platforms. For instance, users of the video sharing site, YouTube are required to indicate whether they have employed generative AI to create videos or they would be banned.