Posted on 04/15/2024 7:22:58 AM PDT by Twotone
Dozens of prominent U.S. and state government officials, advocacy groups, and executives from big tech companies gathered in New York last month to participate in an important simulated election exercise.
The war game exercise imagined a fictional crisis in which AI-generated photos and videos are released on social media immediately before the 2024 election. The images appear to show election officials in Florida dumping ballots, in an apparent attempt to manipulate the election’s outcome.
If a deepfake election crisis does occur — and there are good reasons to think it will — Trump’s enemies will be ready to take advantage.
The simulation also included phone calls to elderly voters in Arizona that featured AI-generated voices. The calls asked elderly voters to stay away from polling centers due to threats from radical militia groups.
Participants role-played how the Biden administration should respond to the simulated deepfake event. They gathered in a mock “White House Situation Room,” with each player taking on the role of a prominent figure in government, civil society, or corporate America, including the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, big tech companies, and even the CIA.
Participants engaged in lengthy debates about how government should address the problem, including whether Joe Biden should personally get involved, one of the “big debates in the room,” according to a report by NBC News. Participants were apparently concerned that if Biden made any statements, it would be used as proof that he was attempting to rig the election in his favor.
Organizers called the event “the Deepfake Dilemma.” (The word “deepfake” refers to AI-generated content that is so realistic-looking or -sounding that it can fool people into believing it’s authentic.)
The Deepfake Dilemma is part of a much larger effort taking place nationally to prepare for a 2024 deepfake election crisis, and it should scare the heck out of you. A potential catastrophe
Without question, AI-generated content could have an impact on the 2024 election. A well-timed deepfake image, audio clip, or video could create massive confusion for voters or perhaps even affect how individuals decide to vote. The danger is real.
It isn’t hard to imagine, for example, how a deepfake audio clip of Donald Trump talking to Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine could be used to swing the election in Joe Biden’s favor. This is especially true if such a clip were to be released just before Election Day.
Although they don’t always get the media attention they deserve, election deepfakes have been released at a rapidly increasing pace in recent years, both in the United States and abroad.
For instance, just prior to the New Hampshire Democratic primary, a deepfake robocall featuring the AI-generated voice of Joe Biden asked people to stay home, to save their vote for the general election. The robocall scheme was the work of Steve Kramer, a longtime Democratic Party operative.
During a heated mayoral race in Chicago in 2023, unknown nefarious actors released AI-generated audio of Paul Vallas. At that time, Vallas was considered the favorite to win the election. The audio, which was posted online by a fake news website called the Chicago Lakefront News, appears to show Vallas saying that back in his day, cops would kill 17 or 18 people and “nobody would bat an eye.” The audio clip also suggests that the city should start “refunding the police.”
Vallas ended up losing the mayoral race to Brandon Johnson, a far-left candidate. It’s unlikely the audio is the primary reason Vallas lost, but no one knows for sure how great an impact the audio had.
At stake in 2024
Although the threat of a deepfake election crisis in 2024 is real, it’s possible a bigger threat to a fair election is that anti-Trump groups might use an election deepfake to keep Trump out of the White House.
NBC News reports that the participants in the Deepfake Dilemma war game and other “nonprofits and good-government groups” are actively working to build a nationwide network of “former officials, technology specialists, and others to help local authorities detect deepfakes in real time and respond with accurate information.”
That might be a good thing, if it weren’t for the fact that most of those involved appear to have a strong bias against Donald Trump, raising serious questions about whether they would use a future deepfake event to benefit Joe Biden.
One of the event’s participants was Kathryn Boockvar, a Democrat who served as Pennsylvania’s secretary of state during the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s campaign sued Boockvar’s office in 2020, alleging that the state and local officials violated election law.
Another participant was MSNBC anchor Alex Witt, an outspoken Trump critic.
Further, one of the key groups behind the effort is a nonprofit organization called Issue One. Issue One’s CEO participated in the war game and is also working across the country to develop better “election integrity” laws.
Although Issue One sells itself as “bipartisan,” it has directly opposed Trump on numerous occasions. Many of the Republicans affiliated with the group are openly opposed to Trump as well.
On its website, Issue One brags that it “helped lead the congressional push to establish a 9/11-style commission to investigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.” It also lauds its Count Every Vote initiative, a “campaign to defend the integrity of the 2020 elections.”
Another key figure in the growing deepfake election network is Miles Taylor, an organizer of the March event. Taylor is a rabid opponent of Trump, one who has strong connections to the national security industry. Taylor served as the chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security during the Trump administration. While still in that position, he anonymously published an infamous op-ed in theNew York Times titled, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.”
In the Times article, Taylor painted a bleak picture of Trump and his motives, routinely hurling insults at his boss while hiding behind his anonymous byline.
For example, Taylor wrote, “Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic” and that his leadership style is “impetuous, adversarial, petty, and ineffective.”
Do any of these people sound like nonpartisan figures?
Do they sound like people who should be responsible for giving guidance to lawmakers and election officials in the event of a dire deepfake election crisis?
Do you trust that if a crisis does develop, Taylor and others won’t use it as an opportunity to benefit Joe Biden?
Just to be clear: I’m not saying that anti-Trump forces are planning to launch a false flag deepfake operation during or prior to the 2024 election. But if a deepfake election crisis does occur — and there are good reasons to think it will — those who hate Trump will be ready to take advantage. They are working tirelessly to put the infrastructure in place to give themselves the best chance of controlling the narrative.
With all this in mind, you might be wondering how conservatives are preparing.
As far as I can tell, they aren’t.
Well...duh! It worked once, why won’t it work again?
It will be a long year at least til March 2025
They will never let him be president
The advent of usable AI technology in the last couple years will definitely be a factor in the election this year.
They ALWAYS ACCUSE OTHERS OF DONING WHAT THEY ACTUALLY WILL BE DOING.....................
*
I imagine Tin Lizzie and the Klingon are raising big bucks to get The Official Pedophile of the U.S. Government re-elected.
Utter rubbish. The only “deep fakes” will be the manufactured ballots delivered by truckload to the seven cities that actually determine who wins the electoral college.
Any State that doesn’t audit all absentee ballot signatures should have their Electors rejected.
It’s really stupid for Dems to announce in advance their detailed plans to steal the election.
Unless the snakes are trying to throw us off the track.
Granted Pubbies are slow on the uptake, but it would be foolish for them to unveil their plans (if any).
First thing that comes to mind when reading this is there must be nekked pictures they need to claim are fake.
Gore tried to steal the election in Florida. Got a liberal judge to grant him recounts in Democrat-controlled counties, and the whole election was thrown to the Supreme Court where we had to wait a month before we knew who the President was. And what did the Republicans do in the aftermath of that fiasco? Nothing! They had 20 years to do something about voter fraud and election interference, but they sat on their hands, pretending nothing untoward had happened in 2000. Not even when they had the majority in both Houses of Congress during those 20 years, did they even attempt to do anything. They didn't do anything in 2020, and they won't do anything in November. And the majority of them on January 6th, accepted Biden's fraudulent electors without a peep.
I’m still very sceptical that there will be an election in November. Even if Trump were somehow able to win the election how would he be able to MAGA working within the current corrupted, broken system with all the rats still in place? Could not be done.
Good post.
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Meanwhile, Innocent Americans are still in jail for their non violent participation in the events of January 6.
AI-generated photos and videos
I didn’t know magic acts were back in they look good but you understand the truth of the act.
The slow ones wonder about them for a life time.
I'm surprised that more people don't talk about this, it was all out in the open, what they were planning to do was no secret, especially since they went ahead and did it.
The fact that they are starting early and have a much bigger group involved is concerning.
Much more concerning is why, since their plans were right out in public, the Trump campaign was completely unprepared to deal with it.
So, just like when they pre-planned for a Russian Operation on Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 election? I predict videos of things which Biden actually did and said will be labeled deep fakes, and the compliant press will happily go along.
All is cover for electronic voting machines.
2024 is the Thunderdome election.
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