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'Lies are Flooding Feeds': AI Fakery Raises US Voter Manipulation Fears

This combination of photos taken at campaign rallies in Atlanta shows Vice President Kamala Harris on July 30, 2024, left, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on Aug. 3. (AP Photo)
This combination of photos taken at campaign rallies in Atlanta shows Vice President Kamala Harris on July 30, 2024, left, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on Aug. 3. (AP Photo)
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'Lies are Flooding Feeds': AI Fakery Raises US Voter Manipulation Fears

This combination of photos taken at campaign rallies in Atlanta shows Vice President Kamala Harris on July 30, 2024, left, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on Aug. 3. (AP Photo)
This combination of photos taken at campaign rallies in Atlanta shows Vice President Kamala Harris on July 30, 2024, left, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on Aug. 3. (AP Photo)

A "deepfake" video parodying Kamala Harris, a manipulated expletive-laden clip of Joe Biden, and a doctored image of Donald Trump being arrested -- a tide of AI-fueled political disinformation has prompted alarm over its potential to manipulate voters as the US presidential race heats up.
In what is widely billed as America's first AI election in November, researchers warn that tech-enabled fakery could be used to steer voters toward or away from candidates -- or even to avoid the polls altogether -- stoking tensions in an already hyperpolarized environment, AFP said.
A recent wave of disinformation has renewed calls for tech giants -- many of which have retreated from moderating social media content -- to strengthen guardrails around generative artificial intelligence ahead of the vote.
Last week, Elon Musk faced intense criticism for sharing a deepfake video featuring Vice President Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee, with his 192 million followers on X, formerly Twitter.
In it, a voiceover mimicking Harris calls President Joe Biden senile; the voice then declares that she does not "know the first thing about running the country."
The video carried no indication that it was parody -- save for a laughing emoji. Only later did Musk clarify that the video was meant as satire.
Researchers expressed concern that viewers could have falsely concluded that Harris was deriding herself and sullying Biden.
AFP's fact-checkers have debunked other AI fakery that raised alarm.
Last month, a manipulated video ricocheting across X appeared to show Biden cursing his critics after he announced he would not seek reelection and endorsed Harris for the Democratic nomination.
A reverse image search showed the footage came from one of Biden’s speeches, carried live by the broadcaster PBS, in which he denounced political violence after the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump.
PBS said the doctored video was a deepfake that used its logo to deceive viewers.
Weeks earlier, an image shared across platforms appeared to show police forcibly arresting Trump after a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
But the photo was a deepfake, digital forensics experts told AFP.
'Partisan tension'
"These recent examples are highly representative of how deepfakes will be used in politics going forward," Lucas Hansen, co-founder of the nonprofit CivAI, told AFP.
"While AI-powered disinformation is certainly a concern, the most likely applications will be manufactured images and videos intended to provoke anger and worsen partisan tension."
Hansen demonstrated to AFP the ability of one AI chatbot to manipulate voter turnout by mass-producing false tweets.
The tool was fed a simple prompt -- "Polling locations charge for parking" –- with the message customized for a specific location: Allen, Texas.
Within seconds, a tweet was churned out misinforming viewers that Allen authorities had "quietly introduced a $25 parking fee at most polling places."
In a previous attempt at possible voter suppression, an AI-enabled robocall impersonating Biden urged New Hampshire residents in January not to cast ballots in the state's primary.
Tests on another leading AI tool, Midjourney, allowed the creation of images seeming to show Biden being arrested and of Trump appearing next to a body double, the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) said in June.
Midjourney had previously blocked all prompts related to Trump and Biden, effectively barring users from creating fake images, tech activists reported.
But CCDH said users could easily circumvent the policy -- in some cases by adding a single backslash to a prompt previously blocked by Midjourney.
'Tipping point'
Observers warn that such fakery on a mass scale risks igniting public anger at the electoral process.
More than 50 percent of Americans expect AI-enabled falsehoods to impact who wins the 2024 election, according to a poll published last year by the media group Axios and business intelligence firm Morning Consult.
About one-third of Americans said they will be less trusting of the results because of AI, according to the poll.
Several tech giants have said they are working on systems for labeling AI-generated content.
In a letter to tech CEOs in April, more than 200 advocacy groups demanded urgent efforts to bolster the fight against AI falsehoods -- including prohibiting the use of deepfakes in political ads, and using algorithms to promote factual election content.
The nonprofit Free Press, one of the groups that signed the letter, said they "heard little substance" in the commitments platforms would be making this election cycle.
"What we have now is a toxic online environment where lies are flooding our feeds and confusing voters," Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at the watchdog, told AFP.
"This is a tipping point in our election," she added. "Platform executives should be racing to strengthen and enforce their policies against deepfakes and other problems."

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Voices Across the Globe Express Concern Over Increasing Arrests in Venezuela After Disputed Election 

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado addresses supporters during a march amid the disputed presidential election, in Caracas, Venezuela August 3, 2024. (Reuters)
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado addresses supporters during a march amid the disputed presidential election, in Caracas, Venezuela August 3, 2024. (Reuters)
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Voices Across the Globe Express Concern Over Increasing Arrests in Venezuela After Disputed Election 

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado addresses supporters during a march amid the disputed presidential election, in Caracas, Venezuela August 3, 2024. (Reuters)
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado addresses supporters during a march amid the disputed presidential election, in Caracas, Venezuela August 3, 2024. (Reuters)

Voices across the globe expressed concern Sunday over the growing number of arrests in Venezuela following last weekend’s disputed elections.

Pope Francis said Venezuela is “living a critical situation” in his traditional Sunday remarks at the Vatican, adding, “I appeal to all parties to seek the truth, to avoid all kinds of violence.”

The remarks came hours after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced Saturday that the government has arrested 2,000 opponents. At a rally in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, Maduro pledged to detain more people and send them to prison.

US Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer told CBS program “Face the Nation” Sunday that the Biden administration is worried the arrests could spark wider unrest.

“We are concerned about the prospect of instability, should there continue to be these detentions,” Finer said.

And in a statement, the leaders of several European countries including France, Spain, Germany and Italy said “the rights of all the Venezuelans, especially the political leaders, should be respected during this process. We strongly condemn any arrests or threats against them.”

Authorities have declared Maduro the victor in last Sunday’s election but have yet to produce voting tallies to prove he won. The opposition claims to have tally sheets showing it won.

An Associated Press analysis Friday of vote tally sheets released by the opposition coalition indicates that their candidate, Edmundo González, won significantly more votes than the government claimed, casting serious doubt on the official declaration that Maduro won.

Both González, a former diplomat, and opposition leader María Corina Machado — who was barred by the government from running — have gone into hiding, saying they fear they will be arrested or killed. Maduro and his cadres have threatened to lock them both up.

The government arrested hundreds of opposition supporters who took to the streets in the days after the disputed poll.

Machado braved the threats to speak at a massive opposition rally Saturday in Caracas, but was whisked away afterwards on the back of a motorcycle.

“After six days of brutal repression, they thought they were going to silence us, intimidate or paralyze us,” Machado told the rally. “The presence of every one of you here today represents the best of Venezuela.”

A few hours later, Maduro again threatened to arrest González for not showing up at the electoral council meeting he had been summoned to. The council, like most parts of Venezuela's government, is completely controlled by Maduro.

“You face serious legal consequences for disobeying the Constitution, the courts and the law,” Maduro said of González.

Maduro also vowed to continue to use a heavy hand against his opponents, saying 2,000 of them have been arrested already.

“This time there will be no pardon, this time there will be Tocorón,” he said, referring to a notorious prison.

On Friday, masked assailants ransacked the opposition’s headquarters on Friday, taking documents and vandalizing the space.

In his long, rambling speech, Maduro issued threats but also called for reconciliation and peace, claiming, “There is room in Venezuela for everyone,” and calling it “the blessed land of opportunity.”

Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves and once boasted Latin America’s most advanced economy, but it entered into a free fall marked by 130,000% hyperinflation and widespread shortages after Maduro took the helm in 2013. More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2014, the largest exodus in Latin America’s recent history.

US oil sanctions have only deepened the misery, and the Biden administration — which had been easing those restrictions — is now likely to ramp them up again unless Maduro agrees to some sort of transition.

Late Friday, Venezuela’s high court, the Supreme Justice Tribunal, ordered the Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council to hand over the precinct vote count sheets in three days. There have been calls from multiple governments, including Maduro’s close regional allies, for Venezuela’s electoral authorities to release the precinct-level tallies, as it has after previous elections.

The AP processed almost 24,000 images of tally sheets, representing the results from 79% of voting machines.

According to the calculations, the González received 6.89 million votes, nearly half a million more than the government says Maduro won. The tabulations also show Maduro received 3.13 million votes from the tally sheets released.

By comparison, the National Electoral Council said Friday that based on 96.87% of tally sheets, Maduro had won 6.4 million votes and Gonzalez had 5.3 million. National Electoral Council President Elvis Amoroso attributed the delay in filing complete results to attacks on the “technological infrastructure.”

There has been a flurry of diplomatic efforts by Brazil, Colombia and Mexico to convince Maduro to allow an impartial audit of the vote. On Thursday, the governments of the three countries issued a joint statement calling on Venezuela’s electoral authorities “to move forward expeditiously and publicly release” detailed voting data.