‘Fake, manipulated lies,’ says Kamala Harris campaign after Elon Musk shares AI-generated parody clip without disclaimer

Elon Musk, the Space X founder and Tesla owner, shared an AI-generated video of US Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday evening without explicitly stating that it was originally released as a parody.

The manipulated video mimics the presumptive Democratic nominee as saying things she did not say,  raises concerns about the power of artificial intelligence to mislead with US Presidential elections just three months away.

The tech billionaire shared the post with the caption “This is amazing” and a laughing emoji days after endorsing the Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump. The video has been making headlines ever since it was shared by Musk on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

It is noteworthy that the video uses similar visuals to a real ad that the Democratic Party candidate released a week ago while launching her Presidential campaign.

The clip, which has a swapped voice-over audio, convincingly impersonates the Vice President. The video says, “I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate."

The video suggests that the 59-year-old American politician is a “diversity hire” because she is a woman and a person of colour, and it says she doesn't know “the first thing about running the country.” Meanwhile, the one-minute, fifty-three-second video retains the “Harris for President” branding in addition to some authentic past clips of Kamala Harris.

In response to this misleading clip, a Kamala Harris campaign spokesperson, Mia Ehrenberg, addressed an email to news agency the Associated Press. It stated, “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.”

Notably, the social media user who posted the video included a disclaimer both on YouTube and on X stating that the manipulated video was a parody.

(With inputs from AP)