AS REPORTED BY VOICE OF AMERICA, July 28, 2024, “A manipulated video that mimics the voice of 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.”
“Raising concerns”? Well, no wonder!
Clik here to view.
VOA continues, “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.”
Which, by the way, is in direct contradiction to X’s Terms of Service, of which more anon.
Political Satire. We’re all familiar—and often enjoy—political satire dating back to Tom Lehrer’s wonderful line that “Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” Another favorite of mine is Sandy and Richard Riccardi’s “Trump’s Speech, Montana, July 5, 2018”. (And, do follow up on the more current Riccardi works following that classic.) And Randy Rainbow’s “Trump’s Favorite Things.”
A.I. Audio. By contrast, as reported by VOA the video on X “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.”
VOA describes: “ ‘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.”
Musk’s Hypocritical Use. VOA observes, “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.”
This, despite X’s policies, which say users “may not share synthetic, manipulated, or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.”
My italics; not VOA’s, which goes on to note “The policy has an exception for memes and satire as long as they do not cause “significant confusion about the authenticity of the media.”
Geez, what about A.I. dubbing fake monologues?
Clik here to view.
Elon Reeve Musk, Pretoria-born 1971, businessman, investor. Image by Kenny Holston/The New York Times.
Maybe billionaires have the same immunity as presidents? We’ll have to ask the Supreme Court.
Now you tell one. But first read BBC‘s account of Musk’s “pedo guy” absolution and his transgender daughter’s views.
Jus’ mentionin’…. with no A.I. fakes, no parody; just news.
Precedents of Rich Hypocrisy. Henry Ford is recognized as having put America on wheels, albeit while being a moralistic watchdog of his workers which didn’t stop him from being notoriously anti-Semitic. And also generating a great tale about a neighbor woman who “hadn’t just cut Ford’s grass;” she had “entertained” Mr. Ford.
Again, no A.I. needed. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024