It has been called politics’ deepfake moment.
A robotic voice similar to Joe Biden’s is urging Democrats not to vote in the Democratic primary, and it’s still unclear who is behind it.
– This is being looked at seriously, says foreign reporter Tomas Kvarnkullen.
Voters in the US state of New Hampshire have been told not to go and vote in the Democratic primary. The sender is, as it sounds, President Joe Biden himself.
But it is not Biden who is the sender of the phone call, but the voice is, according to experts, an AI-generated robot voice. Now a finger of warning is being raised that politics’ deepfake moment may be here, that is, artificial voices or images can now be used to send out false claims to voters, while appearing to come from a real source. Like the president himself.
– They have used artificial intelligence to analyze his voice with the help of existing clips when Joe Biden speaks, and so they have created a clone of his voice and can thus make Joe Biden say almost anything, says tech expert Evelina Galli i After five.
The White House is acting
The reactions have not been long in coming. The White House’s attitude was initially that it was obvious that it was a fake call, says foreign reporter Tomas Kvarnkullen.
– But it quickly led to prosecutors in New Hampshire starting an investigation. They call this an illegal attempt to influence the primary election. But since they don’t know the extent, how many people have received the call, they have urged those who have done so to contact investigators, he says.
Unclear sender
It is still unclear who or who are behind the talks. At an early stage it seemed to come from the inside.
– What caused a lot of speculation was that this conversation appeared to come from a leading Democrat in New Hampshire. A Democrat who was involved in the campaign held there to put President Biden on the ballot, says Kvarnkullen, and continues:
– That Democrat raised the alarm herself that someone was trying to make this look like it came from her number.