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Steven Miles calls deepfake video of him “a turning point for our democracy”.
The Queensland Premier, Steven Miles, has responded angrily to a post by the state’s Liberal National Party on TikTok after the party posted a deepfake of Miles dancing a jig.
“POV: my rent is up $60 a week, my power bill is up 20%, but the Premier made a sandwich on TikTok,” the deepfake post said.
Miles makes regular posts on TikTok discussing government policy, often while making a sandwich.
The video features a disclaimer saying, “Creator has labelled as AI-generated,” but Miles was nonetheless incensed after the post was made.
Miles called on the state Opposition Leader to explain the party’s actions.
“Mr Crisafulli needs to explain why he thinks this is OK. It’s a test of his character. In a time when misinformation is everywhere, we as politicians have a duty to communicate with our audiences and to voters clearly and honestly,” Miles said in a statement to the ABC.
In a later statement to the media, Miles said the incident was “a turning point for our democracy”.
“Until now, we’ve known that photos could be doctored or photoshopped. But we’ve been trained to believe what we see in video, and for a political party now to be willing to use AI to make deepfake attack videos, it’s a very dangerous turning point,” Miles said.
“And that means that Queenslanders between now and October will have to question everything that they see from the LNP and ask themselves, is this real? Or is this a deepfake?”
Miles added that Labor would refrain from using similar tactics in its communications.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.