Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign criticized Elon Musk on Saturday after the billionaire Tesla CEO and X owner shared a video with doctored or fake audio of Harris allegedly describing herself as the “ultimate DEI hire.”
Musk reshared the video — originally posted by a separate X account, which labeled it a parody — to his more than 190 million followers on Friday, with the caption: “This is amazing.” The video had been viewed more than 73 million times as of Saturday morning, according to X data.
“I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire,” a voice impersonating Harris says in the video. It goes on to describe Harris and Biden as “puppets” of the “deep state.”
CNN ran the fake Harris audio through an AI detection tool on Saturday, which found there was “substantial evidence” the voice had been generated using AI.
A new line of attack: Republicans have used the term “DEI,” referring to diversity, equity and inclusion policies, to attack Harris and suggest she rose to her status as the presumptive Democratic nominee based on her race and gender.
Critics say it amounts to a racist dog whistle, including Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost, who told CNN’s Jim Acosta this week that Republicans were using the phrase “IED” as a “racial slur.”
Combating disinformation: Bipartisan concern about AI-driven election interference has led to a patchwork of laws across the country as state lawmakers seek to blunt the impact of misinformation and prevent deepfakes from overwhelming voters.
More than a dozen states led by Republicans and Democrats have enacted legislation this year to regulate the use of deepfakes — realistic videos, audio and other fake content created with AI — in campaigns. The laws come amid warnings from the Department of Homeland Security about deepfakes’ ability to mislead voters.
CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed reporting to this post.
