SAN FRANCISCO – A year and a half ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the Republican National Committee began running attack ads against President Joe Biden. This time around, however, the committee did something different.
It used generative AI to create a political ad filled with images depicting an alternative reality, with a partisan slant — what it wants us to believe the country would look like if Biden was reelected. The ad flashes images of migrants coming across US borders in droves, a world war imminent and soldiers patrolling the streets of barren US cities. And at the top left corner of the video, a small, faint disclaimer — easy to miss — notes, “Built entirely with AI imagery.”
It’s unclear what prompts the RNC used to generate this video. The committee didn’t respond to requests for more information. But it surely seems like it worked off ideas like “devastation,” “governmental collapse” and “economic failure.”
Political ads aren’t the only place we’re seeing misinformation pop up via AI-generated images and writing. And they won’t always carry a warning label. Fake images of Pope Francis wearing a stylish puffer jacket, for instance, went viral in March, suggesting incorrectly that the religious leader was modeling an outfit from luxury fashion brand Balenciaga. A TikTok video of Paris streets littered with trash amassed more than 400,000 views this month, and all the images were completely fake.
