close
close

Elon Musk Releases AI-Generated Propaganda to Pressure Trump

Posted on by darion

Elon Musk shared an AI-generated video of presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris saying absurd things that went viral over the weekend. The video has sparked a discussion about the role of fake images in persuading potential voters. While it’s unlikely that many people think this new video of Harris is real, it’s just the latest example of Musk trying to put his thumb on the scale to elect Donald Trump.

Trump supporters have been on the defensive since Biden conceded and endorsed Harris, who is now climbing in the polls amid a wave of relief across the country. Trump seemed unstoppable for months, but the atmosphere has changed significantly, with ordinary people simply pointing out the inherent weirdness of guys like vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. Republicans are absolutely terrified, to say the least.

But now Musk and his fellow weirdos are responding by doing everything they can to paint Harris as a bad or unreasonable person, including with a video about artificial intelligence that the billionaire shared on Friday with the caption, “This is amazing.”

The video begins with the fake Harris mispronouncing her name, a common mistake that would normally flag up the AI, though it’s not always a strong signal to Trump supporters that it’s not real. Trump himself regularly mispronounces her name and recently admitted at a rally that he knows the correct pronunciation but doesn’t use it.

From that point on, the recording becomes just a litany of racist accusations and absurd disinformation.

“I was elected because I am the best candidate in terms of diversity. I am a woman and a person of color. So if you criticize anything, I say you are sexist and racist,” the fake Harris says in the video.

Musk, who has a habit of making extremely racist comments, clearly knows a thing or two about racism.

Musk’s release of the video was clearly just an attempt to help elect a fascist, but some Democrats took it the wrong way, overreacting and threatening to ban political AI videos altogether in response to the tweet. California Gov. Gavin Newsom went the furthest when he said he would introduce a bill in the coming weeks.

“Voice manipulation in an ‘ad’ like this should be illegal. I’ll be signing a bill in a few weeks to make sure it is,” Newsom wrote on Twitter.

Musk responded in his characteristically embarrassing style.

“I consulted with renowned world authority Professor Suggon Deeznutz and he said parody is legal in America,” Musk replied on Twitter.

As awful as Musk is, he’s right in this particular case. Even Musk’s fans, some of the dumbest and most gullible people out there, couldn’t possibly think that this video shows the things Harris actually said. And there has to be a place in a free society for people to make parody videos that make fun of elected officials.

That said, there also have to be guardrails to the use of AI in all spheres, including political messaging. We can’t allow AI technology to be used to actively prevent people from exercising their rights. As a recent example, someone from Dean Phillips’ campaign created an AI-generated recording of Biden that was sent out via robocalls in New Hampshire during the primary. The fake Biden was telling people not to vote because it wasn’t necessary, and that’s obviously something that can’t be allowed.

Musk has spent recent years trying to push far-right candidates into power, even becoming a big Trump supporter after mocking him in the past. But Musk is not a man of principle beyond his own interests, and he believes Trump can deliver tangible financial benefits and the racist policies Musk wants to implement on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Musk shared an incredibly racist tweet on Monday that would have been shocking in a previous era but now acts as background noise on the Nazi-friendly site formerly known as Twitter. And it won’t stop, even if Harris wins in November.

Neither Musk nor the Harris campaign immediately responded to requests for comment Monday. Gizmodo will update this post if we hear back.