There’s a Storm Brewing
AI, tech, and the 2024 elections.
My son shows me a video on his phone. It’s a series of photographs of Mitch McConnell, DeSantis, and other GOP leaders in drag, set to Doja Cat’s “Boss B*itch.” I roll my eyes, but also let out an audible giggle at Mike Pence’s serious face and high heel pink glitter boots.
The images are work of the Rupulicans Instagram account and, of course, are not real. They are AI generated… flawlessly. The account is deploying age old tactics of mockery to try to diminish the power of the powerful during a fraught political moment. “Say hello to the GOP’s downfall darling, Rudy Garland, serving cuckoo couture,” reads the caption of Guilani dressed in leopard print. I am absolutely here for it.
Of course, no one thinks these photos were real (though Guiliani did dress in drag back in 2000, earning a kiss from Trump). But AI and other emerging technology that allow deception and manipulation are evolving at such a rapid clip, with another application the average consumer might not be able to keep up and distinguish fact from fiction. Just the other week, I fell for an AI photograph of a giant great white shark beached on the Outer Banks. I’m not the only one to have clicked on the image– the image had over 10,000 shares.
