[ti:A Shared Video Raises Concerns about AI and Politics]
[al:As It Is]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2024-07-30]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]A video shared on the social media service X is raising concerns about the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to mislead voters, with American elections about three months away.
[00:18.63]The video causing concern shows U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris saying things she did not say.
[00:29.32]Harris is the likely Democratic Party presidential nominee.
[00:34.32]The video was changed using AI tools.
[00:39.09]The video gained widespread attention after tech billionaire Elon Musk shared it on X last week.
[00:48.90]Musk did not write in his posting that the video was a parody.
[00:55.79]A parody is any work that imitates someone or something, with the purpose of being funny.
[01:05.49]People who saw the video thought it had the appearance of a real political advertisement created by the Harris campaign.
[01:16.65]But the video's audio has another voice that sounds like Harris but is not.
[01:23.42]Harris began her presidential campaign after U.S. President Joe Biden said he would no longer seek reelection. 
[01:33.81]Biden had already gained enough delegates in primary elections to be the party's candidate.
[01:42.26]In the video shared by Musk, the voice that sounds like Harris says, "I, Kamala Harris, am you Democrat candidate for president..."
[01:54.22]It says Harris is a "diversity hire" because she is a woman and is not white. 
[02:01.56]It also says she does not know the "first thing about running the country."
[02:08.61]The video uses real "Harris for President" images.
[02:13.91]It also contains real video of things Harris has said in the past.
[02:19.59]Mia Ehrenberg is a Harris campaign spokesperson. 
[02:25.16]Ehrenberg wrote in an email to the Associated Press (AP): "We believe 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."
[02:46.43]The widely shared video is an example of how AI-generated images, video and audio have been used to make fun of people or to mislead the public. 
[02:59.74]AI-generated materials have increasingly targeted politics.
[03:05.41]High-quality AI tools are now easier to find and use. 
[03:10.89]Some people say there are not enough federal rules to control their use. 
[03:17.35]Currently, states and social media services set rules for using AI for political purposes.
[03:25.26]The fake video of Harris raises questions about how people should deal with videos that have been changed when they are parodies or satire.
[03:37.42]A YouTube user known as Mr Reagan first shared the video. 
[03:43.79]That user wrote on both YouTube and on X that the video was manipulated and that it was a parody.
[03:53.27]Chris Kohls, the YouTube user known as Mr Reagan, pointed an AP reporter to another YouTube video he made early Monday in answer to the reaction of the parody video. 
[04:10.83]In the new video, Kohls confirmed he used AI to make the fake ad and argued that it was clearly a parody.
[04:21.07]However, Musk shared the parody ad by writing, "This is amazing." 
[04:27.47]He also included a "laughing" emoji. 
[04:31.37]He did not clearly state that the video is a parody.
[04:35.96]More than 123 million people have seen the video through Musk.
[04:41.40]Musk's X social media service has a feature called "community notes."
[04:47.90]It permits users to add context to messages that might be misleading. 
[04:54.45]Some people using the feature have suggested that Musk's message should have said that the video was a parody. 
[05:04.14]They say it might have violated X's policies, which bar "out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm."
[05:16.63]The X policy makes exceptions for memes and satire, as long as such postings do not cause "significant confusion..."
[05:29.60]The United States Congress has not passed a law on AI and politics.
[05:35.41]But federal agencies have made efforts to do so.
[05:39.52]The National Conference of State Legislatures says more than one-third of American states have passed their own laws regulating the use of AI in campaigns and elections.
[05:54.04]The U.S. elections will take place on November 5.
[05:58.44]I'm Ashley Thompson.