Taylor Swift Endorses Kamala Harris, Calls Out Donald Trump’s Fake AI Post
Taylor Swift on Tuesday endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, citing AI-generated deepfake images posted by Donald Trump that appeared to reflect her support for the former president.
The popular singer-songwriter, who had previously remained silent about her position on the candidates, announced her decision on Instagram After watching the Harris-Trump debate on Tuesday night, he said Trump’s deepfakes “fueled my fears around AI and the dangers of spreading disinformation.
“It made me realize that I need to be very transparent about my real plans for this election as a voter,” Swift said. “The easiest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”
Swift’s endorsement of the Democratic presidential candidate comes just weeks after Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he accepted Swift’s support. He also posted some AI generated deepfake images of Swift and her fans, the so-called Swifties, who seemingly showed their support for the Republican presidential candidate.
The images, on which Trump placed the text “I accept,” were originally posted on Xformerly known as Twitter, by a user who labeled them as satire. One of the images reposted to Trump’s Truth Social account had the word “satire” in the image text.
Conversely, Trump wrongly accused Harris’ campaign of using AI to deepfake a photo taken at a rally in August to show a hugely inflated crowd. But numerous other videos and photos of the event showed a crowd roughly the same size as the one in Harris’ campaign photo.
Advances in artificial intelligence in recent years have made it easier for humans to generate convincing deepfakes: manipulated images or videos in which people do something or say they are not doing something. Experts fear that these deepfakes could influence how or even whether people vote ahead of November’s presidential election.
Swift encouraged voters to do their own research on the issue and register to vote.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
