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Elon Musk shared an AI-generated video of presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris saying ridiculous things that went viral over the weekend. The video led to a discussion about what role fake images play in persuading potential voters. While it’s unlikely many people thought this new video of Harris was 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 ever since Biden stepped aside and endorsed Harris, who’s currently surging in the polls amid a wave of relief throughout the country. Trump seemed unstoppable for months, but the vibe has shifted considerably, with regular people simply pointing out the innate weirdness of guys like vice presidential nominee JD Vance. Republicans are absolutely terrified, to put it mildly.
But now Musk and his fellow weirdos are hitting back, doing everything they can to paint Harris as bad or unreasonable, including with the AI video the billionaire shared on Friday with the caption “This is amazing.”
The video starts with the fake Harris mispronouncing her own name, a common error that normally would signal with AI although that may not always be 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 there, the video is just a litany of racist claims and absurd misinformation.
“I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire. I’m both a woman and a person of color So if you criticize anything I say you’re both sexist and racist,” the fake Harris says in the video.
Musk, who has a history of extremely racist comments, obviously knows a thing or two about racism.
This is amazing 😂
pic.twitter.com/KpnBKGUUwn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 26, 2024
Musk’s sharing of the video was clearly just a bid to help elect a fascist, but some Democrats set their sights on the wrong target by overreacting and threatening to ban politically themed AI videos altogether in response to the tweet. California Gov. Gavin Newsom took things the furthest when he said he’d introduce legislation in the coming weeks.
“Manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal. I’ll be signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is,” Newsom tweeted.
Musk shot back in his characteristically embarrassingly way.
“I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America,” Musk tweeted back.
As horrible as Musk is, he’s right in this very specific case. Even fans of Musk, some of the dumbest and most credulous people around, couldn’t have thought this video was showing things that Harris actually said. And there needs to be space within a free society for people to make parody videos making fun of elected officials.
That said, there also needs to be guardrails for the use of AI in all kinds of spheres, including political messaging. We can’t allow AI tech to be used to actively stop people from exercising their rights. As one recent example, someone from the Dean Phillips campaign created an AI-generated recording of Biden that was sent out via robocalls in New Hampshire during the primaries. 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 candidates from the extreme right into office, even becoming a big Trump supporter after ridiculing him in the past. But Musk isn’t a man of principle beyond his own interests, and he believes Trump can provide tangible financial benefits and the racist policies that Musk wants to see enforced at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Musk shared an incredibly racist tweet Monday that would’ve been shocking in a previous era, but now just acts as background noise on the Nazi-friendly site formerly known as Twitter. And it’s not going to stop, even if Harris wins in November.
The Biden-Harris Administration is importing vast numbers of voters https://t.co/p0OQM0RWpt
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2024
Neither Musk nor the Harris campaign immediately responded to a request for comment Monday. Gizmodo will update this post if we hear back.
