For his opponents the audio clip sounded too good to be true: Donald Trump Jr. saying the U.S. had picked the wrong side in the Ukraine war and should be arming Russia.
And in fact it was too good to be true. Analysts say the clip of his voice was actually generated by A.I.
But the factcheck came too late for social media users, including an account run by the Democratic National Committee, which shared the post, sending it viral.
‘I honestly can’t imagine anyone in their right mind picking Ukraine as an ally when Russia is the other option,’ says a voice that sounds just like the president’s eldest son.
The speaker ridicules the Biden administration for weighing in behind Ukraine instead of the ‘massive nuclear power loaded with natural resources everyone.
‘And ha ha, there’s Ukraine, which has Chernobyl, and some radiation-proof dogs, the voice continues.
‘Meanwhile, the Biden administration is like, “Oh, yeah, this is definitely the ally we need. Let’s dump all our money into them.”
‘Honestly, if anything, the U.S. should have been sending weapons to Russia.’
Donald Trump Jr was the target of AI engineers who spread fake audio of him
It sounds like the sort of thing Don Jr. might say just to get a rise out of his enemies.
But it is a fake.
The clip purported to show Trump’s podcast, Triggered, playing on Spotify. Yet the listed episode is not yet available.
And a representative for Don Jr, Andy Surabian, accused opponents of deliberately sharing a lie.
‘This is 100 percent fake AI generated audio, but I’m sure that won’t stop anti-Trump resistance accounts from continuing to dishonestly spread it,’ he said.
Spread it they did. It was shared by FactPost, an account run by the DNC, and which claims to be ‘posting facts’ to its more than 127,000 followers.
A spokesperson for the DNC told ABC News they removed the post once it was exposed as a fake and that it had a policy of not sharing misinformation.
Hany Farid, chief science officer at GetReal Labs, also told the news organizations that the recording was likely the result of artificial intelligence. He said that was the conclusion of two programs designed to sift out AI-generated audio.
Donald Trump has offered an AI-created vision for what his ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ plan for the Gaza Strip could look like when the war between Israel and Hamas has ended
China used fake social media accounts to sow division and influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election last year, according to a report by Micrsoft
China used fake social media accounts to poll voters on what divides them most to sow division and possibly influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in its favor
The clip is just the latest example of how AI-generated media clips are flooding political debate, raising the prospect that foreign powers could sow confusion and division.
President Donald Trump himself has shared manufactured clips on social media.
Most recently he posted an AI-generated video entitled ‘What’s Next?’ featuring an idealized rebuilt Gaza, complete with a giant golden statue of the president, a Trump Tower and images of Trump lounging poolside with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It quickly caused outrage online.
Users branded it as ‘absolutely horrifying’ and ‘filth on a world stage’, while others argued that it is time for people to ‘start taking Trump’s plan for Gaza more seriously’.
The technology has also been used by foreign powers looking to influence elections.
Last year, Microsoft issued a stark warning that China was using AI and fake social media accounts to spread division and mistrust ahead of the presidential elections.
The tech giant said Beijing is ‘doubling down’ on efforts to disrupt the election and used fake online polls to decide which issues most divide Americans.
