Photo: Alamy
Republicans this week sounded the alarm on the dangers of AI-generated campaign imagery, drawing attention to a modern concern that can easily blur the lines between fantasy and reality.
On Thursday, the DeSantis War Room released a campaign ad that attacked President Donald Trump, resulting in a firestorm of criticism due to dubious images included in the video: AI-generated images of President Trump embracing former Chief White House Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci.
For reference, AI-images are created by an artificial intelligence generator that utilizes the input from written text to create a picture or video based on the written prompt provided by the user. In other words, AI artwork is original, but completely fabricated.
Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who was endorsed by Trump in the 2022 midterm elections, wrote on Twitter, “Smearing Donald Trump with fake AI images is completely unacceptable. I’m not sharing them, but we’re in a new era. Be even more skeptical of what you see on the internet.”
Reo. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., agreed with Sen. Vance’s sentiment, writing, “I agree. Those fake AI campaign ads need to be taken down immediately.”
Human Events editor and popular conservative commentator Jack Posobiec also remarked on social media, “I warned people deep fakes were coming to politics[.] And now they’re here[.]”
Journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Uncover DC, Tracy Beanz, further posited, “It’s just not OK to do this – EVER. There are enough facts to go round on all sides that we don’t have to try to mislead people. It’s never good when anyone resorts to this.”
There have been many concerns raised about the ethicality and the dangers posed by AI technology. Eliezer Yudkowsky warned in TIME magazine that the unknown threats aimed at humanity would likely occur “after AI gets to smarter-than-human intelligence,” per RSBN.