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Like many users of his Grok AI bot, Tesla and X chief Elon Musk has used AI to spread misinformation after he generated a misleading image of Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account, Musk posted an image of Harris dressed in a red suit donned with the communist hammer and sickle emblem in response to one of her political campaign ads that said: “Donald Trump vows to be a dictator on day one.”
Alongside the image, Musk wrote: “Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit.”
While Musk does nothing to indicate the image is AI-generated and states that it is Harris wearing the outfit, the image is very obviously AI-generated, barely resembling Harris. Additionally, the claim that she vowed to be a communist dictator has no real source and is thus misinformation.
Harris’s campaign ad that Musk responded to refers to a Fox News interview in which Trump answered a question asking if he would abuse his power.
“Only on day one,” he responded, adding that he “wants to close the border, and [wants] to drill drill drill”.
Users immediately responded to Musk’s tweet with AI images of Trump and himself dressed in communist or Nazi attire.
Can't believe @elonmusk would pose in a Nazi uniform.
— Philipp Kloeckner (@pip_net) September 2, 2024
Actually I can. He's nuts. pic.twitter.com/ETmCtnhurt
Tell your daddy Trump to stop praising communist dictators all the time.
— Dave Hale - Concerned Republican (@CountryFirstRep) September 2, 2024
Kamala never wrote "love letters" with Kim Jong Un. pic.twitter.com/zS6BpqNxts
Trump himself has also falsely shared AI-generated images related to his campaign; just last month, he shared an image that suggested he had the support of Taylor Swift and her fans.
On 18 August, in what appears to be a now-deleted post to X (formerly Twitter), the former president and current Republican presidential candidate shared a number of AI-generated images suggesting Swift and her fans are supporting his run for president, accompanied by the caption “I accept!”
Three of the images are AI-generated, including two images of young women wearing shirts that say “Swifties for Trump”.
One of these is actually a compilation of six images, posted by a satirical news site with the headline “Swifties turning to Trump after ISIS foiled Taylor Swift concert”, referring to three concerts that were cancelled in Austria earlier this month after authorities discovered that there were plans for attacks on the venue by three individuals, two of which who pledged allegiance to ISIS-K, a regional branch of the terrorist organisation.
The third image depicts Swift dressed as Uncle Sam, with the tagline “Taylor wants you to VOTE for Donald Trump”.
The post also includes two images of 19-year-old Jenna Piwowarczyk, a Taylor Swift fan and Trump supporter who was photographed wearing a “Swifties for Trump” shirt during a campaign rally in Wisconsin.
All of the images in Trump’s post are screenshots of posts by right-wing X accounts.
The post sparked fury from Swift fans, who called out Trump for spreading misinformation.
Despite his war against “fake news” during the 2016 elections, Trump has posted several misleading AI images. On the same day as the Swift post, Trump posted an image of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris speaking at what appears to be a rally in Chicago, with a large banner donned with the communist hammer and sickle symbol.
Since Grok, Musk’s AI bot, gained image generation abilities on 13 August, misleading images and misinformation have been more common on the platform.
Despite Musk and Grok 2, the latest version of the bot, saying it has stringent guidelines to prevent deepfakes and other misleading images, X quickly became flooded with images that would be deemed as misleading or misinformation.
Civil rights attorney and activist Alejandra Caraballo posted just four images that showed how wild Grok 2’s image generation is. One is of Donald Trump cradling an AR-15-like firearm while piloting an aircraft towards the burning World Trade Centre in New York.
Another depicted fast-food mascot Ronald McDonald, splattered with blood, again holding an assault rifle, while another showed a Disney character beating another Disney character to death with a wooden board.
“Oh my god. Grok has absolutely no filters for its image generation,” Caraballo said in her post.
“This is one of the most reckless and irresponsible AI implementations I’ve ever seen.”
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