Last week, Kamala Harris launched her presidential campaign with a video that boasted "we choose freedom—the freedom not just to get by, but to get ahead," among other liberties that the vice president vows to protect if elected to the Oval Office. On Friday evening, Elon Musk retweeted that video on his X social media platform—or so it seemed. Instead, the clip that Musk circulated was actually an altered deepfake, with artificial intelligence used to redo the voice to sound like Harris, but with a very different message, reports the AP. "I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate," the manipulated voiceover says.
It goes on to claim, in the pretend Harris voice, that the vice president is the "ultimate diversity hire," and that she doesn't "know the first thing about running the country," per the New York Times. "Joe taught me rule No. 1: Carefully hide your total incompetence," the phony Harris says. Although the original video came from an account that labeled it a parody, when Musk retweeted it, the "parody" label had vanished. His accompanying comment simply read: "This is amazing," along with a laugh emoji, with no other context to indicate the video isn't authentic. The deepfake that Musk retweeted, which remained on X as of late Monday morning, has since been viewed more than 129 million times.
Some are pointing out that Musk doing so seemingly violates X's own rules, which state users "may not share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm." There's an exception for memes or satire, "provided these do not cause significant confusion about the authenticity of the media." There's been no official comment yet from Musk, though he did reply to a Gavin Newsom tweet about the matter, proclaiming, in part: "Parody is legal in America."
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Harris' team is pushing back. "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," a Harris campaign rep says in a statement. More here and here on the murky waters regarding elections and AI, as well as how deepfakes have been wielded in the past. (More Elon Musk stories.)
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