The chilling encounters of artificial intelligence are already showing significant implications for 2024, ranging from AI to deceptive robocalls and manipulated images.
By Ecarma Caleb24 January 2024
Illustration courtesy of Vanity Fair. Image by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.
In 2020, poll results began to defy gravity for a considerable number of Americans. Despite the defeat, Donald Trump and his followers persisted in claiming victory. This week’s election is poised to be marred by yet another innovative distortion of reality. Advancements in artificial intelligence have empowered malicious actors to swiftly create fake messages attributed to political figures and dismiss authentic recordings of their statements as fraudulent.
A recent incident exemplifying this phenomenon occurred prior to the Democratic primary in New Hampshire: Residents of the state received robocalls from an AI-generated impersonator of Joe Biden, urging them to refrain from participating in the upcoming primary on Tuesday. According to The Washington Post, these calls, currently under investigation by the New Hampshire Justice Department, represent the first instance of AI being employed in a significant voter suppression tactic. Joseph Morelle, a Democratic senator from New York, has called upon the Justice Department to probe the Biden campaign’s assertion that they are “actively exploring further immediate actions.” In a letter to the DOJ, he implored federal authorities to “prevent future AI-driven assaults that could disrupt American democracy and undermine voter confidence,” emphasizing that “this apparent attempt to interfere in the New Hampshire primary warrants a thorough investigation.”
Meanwhile, Trump has seized upon public apprehensions regarding AI to discredit a recent advertisement released by the Lincoln Project. The ad compiled footage of several Trump blunders, such as his mispronunciation of the word “unidentified” and his failure to correctly identify the town he visited in California in 2018. Despite the accuracy and verifiability of these incidents, Trump dismissed them as fabrications. He took to his social media platform to denounce the ad, alleging, “A.I. is being manipulated by the individuals at the failed Lincoln Project, including pedophiles and losers.” Trump further claimed that these ads, which he deemed as false, should not be broadcast on Fox News.
Similar to Biden, Trump has also been targeted by AI-generated defamation. Actor Mark Ruffalo expressed remorse after sharing fabricated images on X (formerly Twitter) depicting Trump interacting with young females on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane. Ruffalo captioned the now-deleted post with “Gross,” highlighting the discrepancy in how individuals on those flights were portrayed. Trump responded by emphasizing the potential dangers of AI in the future and advocating for stringent regulations against its misuse.
Advancements in AI technology now enable the creation of highly realistic renderings of individuals, capable of saying or doing virtually anything, given sufficient input of images, videos, and audio. This represents a significant leap from the AI landscape just two years ago, where its role in politics was predominantly comedic.
In a recent development, OpenAI, a prominent artificial intelligence company, intervened to prevent an engineer from utilizing its technology to create an animated representation of Dean Phillips, the Democratic senator challenging Biden in an unlikely presidential bid. This action may have been prompted by regulatory concerns within the industry. A pro-Phillips super PAC had developed a voice bot inspired by Phillips’s speeches and media appearances to provide citizens with a unique way to engage with the candidate. However, the bot, known as DeanBot, was subsequently deactivated for violating OpenAI’s usage policies, which prohibit political campaigning or impersonation without consent. A statement on the bot’s website now informs visitors that “Apologies, DeanBot is currently not engaged in campaigning.”
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