Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton is targeting Spanish-speaking voters with an AI-generated ad that shows a caricature of a trans girl playing soccer against high school girls. The ad even features an AI-generated version of his Democratic opponent, Xavier Becerra, taking a policy position that he does not take in real life.
The ad is raising questions about how AI is used both to create problems that don’t exist – the ad used generative AI to portray the trans girl as a much older man pushing cis girls around in a high school soccer game, which doesn’t happen in real life – and to put words in political opponents’ mouths.
This should be considered fraud. Making claims about a political opponent that are a reach is whatever, that’s politics. But making realistic footage of your opponent saying something they never said is just beyond the pale.
How is that not illegal already?
Can you just pubicly impersonate someone?
Defamation
Yes, but also more. Impersonation. Fraud. All of the above.