The world (and the US with it, with the current US administration pretty much leading the way) has for the last few years witnessed what has obviously been a concerted effort to make “AI-powered deepfakes” a thing.
Specifically – a thing that can negatively shape up an election, or even break a democracy.
Anyone, especially apolitical people but those with even a cursory knowledge of the “deepfakes” tech and how long it’s been around in all sorts of media, might have been confused as to why this rhetoric is happening, and why now?
Well – now – months before a US presidential election, we’re starting to get answers.
President Joe Biden is trying to remain in office – and now the White House is giving the world an indication of why the “deepfakes” scaremongering was launched in the first place (and then dutiful picked up by certain – or let’s say, most – corporate media.)
“Confused and disoriented” is a (believe it or not) nicer way to describe the situation with President Biden and his public appearances; the latest, and at this time, the most important, concerns his performance during debates last week.
Instead of trying to prop their candidate up (figuratively and literally) in some credible way, the current White House decided to label the media showing clips of Biden “malfunctioning” as, in addition to being “disinformation, misinformation” – also “cheap fakes.”
But what in the world is that? Is it a video that somebody just happens to dislike, so it’s branded in a way deceptively invoking the dreaded “deepfakes”?
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre was certainly working hard to earn her salary when she tried to explain this one.
“Not at all,” Jean-Pierre said, when quizzed if there was regret over criticizing the media for “clips showing the president appearing to be confused, freezing at times, and you (White House) called it ‘cheap fakes,’ misinformation, disinformation.”
“At the end of the day, they were fakes,” the press secretary asserted. “And the cheap fakes didn’t come from me, I didn’t coin that. That came from the media… I don’t regret it at all, it was just the facts.”
