Elon Musk Criticized for Posting AI-Generated Kamala Harris Ad

Tech guru and X owner Elon Musk is faced criticism after retweeting an AI-generated version of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign adwhich raises concerns concerning the role of artificial intelligence in politics.

The altered video features images from a recent YouTube campaign ad by which Harris speaks to a crowd and videos of her supporters. The fake video includes a voiceover that sounds exactly just like the vice chairman. “I, Kamala Harris, am your Democratic nominee for president because Joe Biden finally revealed his senility during the debate,” the voiceover says. “I was elected because I am the best candidate for office in terms of diversity. I am both a woman and a person of color. So if you criticize anything, you are a sexist and a racist.”

Originally posted on YouTube account named “Mr. Reagan,” the video was flagged as a parody. According to the Associated Press, AI-generated media experts confirmed that most of the video was generated using AI technology. Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley, said the film shows how powerful generative AI and faux depths might be.

“The AI ​​voice is very good,” he said. “While most people won’t believe it’s Vice President Harris’ voice, the video is much more powerful when the words are spoken in her voice.”

Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Safety, Trust, and Security Initiative at Cornell Tech, believes that given the recognition of the altered videos in other countries, it was only a matter of time before they made their solution to the U.S.

“We saw in recent elections in Argentina, India and elsewhere that deepfakes were primarily used for the kind of surface-level deception that’s more like meme trolling than legitimate disinformation,” Mantzarlis said. “I expect we’ll see a ton of that in the U.S. over the next 100 days leading up to the election in November.”

More importantly, the film shows an absence of federal laws and motion to manage such a use, leaving it as much as states and social media platforms to set the foundations.

California Governor Gavin Newsom reached out to X to specific his displeasure with the fake ad. “Voice manipulation in an ‘ad’ like this should be illegal,” he said. “I’ll be signing a bill in a few weeks to make sure that’s the case.” Musk responded partially by saying that “parody is legal in America.”

Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar stressed that Musk’s post could violate his company’s policies. “If @elonmusk and X let it go and don’t mark this as AI altered content, they will not only be violating X’s own policies, but they will also be unleashing an entire election season of fake AI voice and image altered content without any restrictions, regardless of party,” the lawmaker wrote on the platform.

“You may not share synthetic, manipulated or out-of-context media that may mislead or confuse people and lead to harm (so-called “misleading media”)” Policy X is“In addition, we may label posts containing misleading media to help people understand their authenticity and provide additional context.”

Chipotle President and CEO Brian Niccol has apparently seen and heard quite a few complaints from franchise customers about portion sizes; during a July 24 earnings conference call with investors, he said: drew attention to the corporate’s culture based on “generous portions.”

According to Niccol, he wasted no time getting straight to the purpose in the course of the call, and was reported to have reminded investors early on in the decision:[T]There has never been a directive to supply our customers with less. A generous portion is a core value of the Chipotle brand. It at all times has been and at all times will likely be.”

Niccol continued, “With that in mind, the feedback we received caused us to re-evaluate how we deliver our entire system with the goal of continuing to serve our guests delicious, fresh, personalized burritos and bowls with generous portions.”

Niccol’s comments come long after many social media users have joked for years that the chain’s servers don’t serve enough meat. Those complaints recently gained more attention after online food critic Keith Lee posted a TikTok video in May detailing a Chipotle quesadilla hack that went viral, with Lee half-jokingly asking, “Where’s the chicken?”

That same month, after Lee and other social media users documented instances where they felt servers weren’t generous with their portions, Niccol defended the restaurant, insisting and showing that customers can take a have a look at their servers in the event that they weren’t satisfied with the portions served at Chipotle.

During a conference call on financial results, Niccol acknowledged that portion sizes were inconsistent, but said about 10% of the corporate’s restaurants require retraining or bringing them as much as Chipotle standards, in keeping with The Hill.

“To be more consistent across all 3,500 restaurants, we’ve focused on those that have shown outliers in our customer surveys for portion sizes, and we’re putting a renewed emphasis on training and coaching to make sure we’re consistently getting bowls and burritos right,” Niccol said.

Niccol added that positive customer feedback, each online and offline, is sufficient to spread the word about changes at some chains.

“Look, I’m already seeing it on social media, people commenting on the burritos, the bowls that they’re getting,” Niccol said. “And, you know, I think the best source of marketing is word of mouth because people have that experience with Chipotle.”

Although the corporate has raised prices in recent times, investors indicated in the decision that there are currently “no plans” to boost prices further as Chipotle saw an 11% increase in sales in the most recent quarter, which was reportedly because of faster and more efficient store operations in addition to a limited-time promotion for chicken al pastor.