The internet gives users the ability to upload content and connect with millions of people all over the world. However, this ability to connect also makes users susceptible to deepfakes — media that appears real but is manufactured. With the help of artificial intelligence, deepfakes are looking more realistic than ever.
According to the World Economic Forum, AI-generated misinformation has been deemed the greatest short-term threat to the global economy in a year when multiple countries are holding major elections.
The 2024 election will be the first U.S. presidential election since AI became widely available to the general public.
GOP frontrunner and former President Donald Trump has been a victim of AI misinformation before and is now facing another deepfake scandal following the release of more Epstein documents.
As the public anticipated who would be named in the files and connected to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, some people seized the opportunity to manipulate copies of the documents using AI, adding new names to the documents that were never there.
While Trump was named in the actual documents, he was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Photos manipulated and constructed with AI also surfaced, including some placing Trump on Epstein’s plane, surrounded by young girls. The images were shared on social media, and can still be found on X.
Actor Mark Ruffalo — who has over 8 million followers — shared one post, which has been viewed nearly 3 million times and counting.
Ruffalo later apologized after X users flagged the post as AI-generated.
Both Trump and President Joe Biden have called for some sort of AI controls.
Trump shared news of Ruffalo’s mistake on his social media platform Truth Social, saying, “This is A.I., and it is very dangerous for our Country!” and “Strong Laws ought to be developed against A.I. It will be a big and very dangerous problem in the future!”
This is a similar sentiment to what Biden said when he signed an executive order on mitigating risks connected to artificial intelligence.
“We face a genuine inflection point in history, one of those moments where the decisions we make in the very near term are going to set the course for the next decades,” Biden said. “And with the position we lead the world, the toughest challenges are the greatest opportunities.”
According to a new Davos report released Jan. 10, people agree that “false and misleading information” exacerbated by artificial intelligence is the “top immediate risk to the world.”
