Tech
Elon Musk’s Sharing of a Video Manipulated by Artificial Intelligence and Its Consequences
The sharing of a video manipulated using artificial intelligence by Elon Musk raises questions about the reliability of the digital world. An in-depth examination of the consequences of this event and the effects of artificial intelligence.
Elon Musk’s Manipulated Video Post Using Artificial Intelligence
Elon Musk recently sparked controversy by sharing a manipulated version of Kamala Harris’s campaign video on the social media platform X. In the video, phrases like “I was elected because I have top-level diversity” could be heard in the voice of Vice President Harris. However, this video was created using deep fake technology.
The absence of any warning that the video had been manipulated created a serious misleading situation for users. According to X’s own policies, users cannot share “synthetic, manipulated, or contextually misleading media that could deceive or confuse people and cause harm (‘misleading content’).” However, Musk’s violation of these rules did not go unnoticed. This situation once again highlighted the understanding that “rules are only for the governed, not for the governors.”
The shared video remained online throughout the weekend and garnered over 120 million views. It is reported that the post, initially shared by a user named @MrReaganUSA, was meant to be a parody. Musk supported this post by commenting “This is great” along with a laughing emoji. However, X’s mechanism for detecting AI-generated content failed to label this post as misleading, despite the fact that it should have.
Policies Applied to Satire
According to X’s policies, modified content is allowed to remain on the site under certain conditions and may not be labeled as misleading. This is contingent upon “not causing significant confusion regarding the reality of the content.” Thus, these rules do not apply to humor and satire content. However, it is not always easy to determine whether content is satire. Some users may believe that content produced as satire is real.
Earlier this year, 20 technology companies signed an agreement pledging to combat the deceptive use of artificial intelligence in the 2024 elections. X is also part of this agreement. However, larger discussions about the stance of X and Elon Musk are expected in the coming days.