The Foes of Artificial Intelligence in YouTube and the Victims of Donald J. Musk’s “Trump Assassination”

Meta requires that “manipulated media” be labeled as such and that context be added to the post. In March, Google, which owns YouTube, announced a policy requiring users posting videos to disclose when “content a viewer could easily mistake for a real person, place, scene or event” is “made with altered or synthetic media, including generative A.I.”

Mr Musk’s post, which has been viewed 98 million times, would seem to run afoul of X’s policies, which prohibit sharing synthetic, manipulated or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people.

Mr. Musk has said that the community notes feature of X should be used to alert the public to possible misleading information. On Friday night, Community Notes users, a select group that proposes and votes on such notices, debated whether to add one to Mr. Musk’s post.

”This is an AI generated video of Vice President Kamala Harris using audio of clips that were never actually stated by the VP,” read one suggested Community Note. “Videos like this are dangerous to those who can not decipher AI generated content from reality.”

With 191 million followers, Mr. Musk is the most influential voice in the platform and he is able to make almost any content go viral by reposting it.

Shortly after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a campaign rally, he endorsed him in a post. The post has been seen 218 million times.

In a post on Saturday afternoon, Mr. Musk used his account to boost a post by an anonymous user that said “wokeness is a threat to civilization.” Within six minutes, it had already been viewed 481,000 times.

Musk’s post is already getting pushback from the left. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) wrote on Threads that if Musk’s post remains without context, X and Musk “will not only be violating X’s own rules, they’ll be unleashing an entire election season of fake AI voice and image-altered content with no limits, regardless of party.” Legislation has been introduced that will require disclosures on political advertisements to be substantially altered or generated with artificial intelligence.

In addition, the clip was edited to remove images of former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, and to add images of Mr. Biden. The original, unaltered ad was released on Thursday by the Harris campaign.

Mr. Musk didn’t reply to the request for comment. The owner of the @MrReaganUSA account, who appears to be a conservative podcast host named Chris Kohls, also did not reply to a query. In a statement, the Harris campaign said, “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.”

Reply to Comment on ‘Inappropriate use of Artificial Intelligence to manipulate elections”, with an apology from X CEO Linda Yaccarino

Deepfakes, a broad term for digital content that uses artificial intelligence and other technology to create audio, video or images that is false and could affect voter behavior, has been raised increasingly urgent by pro-democracy groups.

In January, ahead of the New Hampshire Democratic primary, a robocall using A.I. technology to mimic Mr. Biden’s voice instructed voters not to participate in the election. The political consultant who orchestrated the calls was later indicted on state charges of impersonating a candidate and voter suppression. Deep fake Hillary Clinton videos depicting her endorsing a Republican governor in Florida were a rage during this year’s Republican primary.

In March, the Global Network on Extremism and Technology, an academic research initiative, said the technology was “already having a corrosive effect on the democratic process,” and the Brennan Center for Justice said the most significant new threat to elections was “the impact of generative A.I. on the information ecosystem.”

The Federal Election Commission approved a petition by Public Citizen, which called for the law to be changed to clarify that artificial intelligence campaign advertisements are deceptive. That amendment was supported by the Democratic National Committee, as well as 52 Democratic members of Congress, but it was opposed by the Republican National Committee, which said that it was “not a proper vehicle for addressing this complex issue” and argued that it could violate the First Amendment.

The post is also the latest fire that X CEO Linda Yaccarino may be tasked with squashing after her boss’s actions. X did not respond immediately to the request for comment.

The parody label was included in the original post, and Musk said it’s legal in America.