PAC Man
Using AI-generated visuals and IRL quotes, a parody political action committee (PAC) is taking on North Carolina’s embattled lieutenant governor and GOP candidate Mark Robinson — and AI itself.
Released by a group calling itself Americans for Prosparody, the fake ad has all the hallmarks of AI uncanniness: weird hands and fingers, jerky serpentine motions, and a voice that sounds like Robinson’s but somehow inhuman.
On the fake “Mark Rottensen” campaign website created by the PAC, which was founded by Raleigh investor and Democratic donor Todd Stiefel, Americans for Prosparody notes that everything the fake version of the gubernatorial candidate says in the phony attack ad are real quotes from the pol himself.
“When I speak to school shooting survivors,” the fake Robinson intones, “I say ‘Shut Up You Spoiled Little Bastards!'”
That quote, as the “Rottensen” website notes, comes directly from a 2018 Facebook post the Republican made in the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida school massacre.
Parody Politics
Stiefel, the fake PAC leader, told local broadcaster WCNC that the ad is “parodying both Mark Robinson’s extremism and AI itself.”
As he notes, the ad includes large-font disclaimers at its beginning and end to denote that it was created by AI.
“These are tools that are available to everyone, which is great that we have this new technology,” Stiefel told the Raleigh news outlet. “A little scary for when this technology is used by bad actors — if you don’t cover it in disclaimers, it can be used for misinformation.”
This approach is not without controversy.
Earlier this month, Amanda Sturgill, a journalism professor Elon University — and no, there’s no relation — told Raleigh’s WRAL that disclaimers aside, the AIads might confuse voters.
“The problem really is that [AI] can be deeply confusing to people,” she explained, “particularly when you’re using a technology that makes it sound like it is the candidate themselves.”
This potential for confusion could be made worse by the fact that Robinson, who’s in the midst of a very real scandal regarding racist and sexist posts he seemingly made more than a decade ago on a porn forum amid the use of other sex sites, has implausibly claimed the posts were somehow generated using AI.
In a statement to WRAL, Robinson spokesperson Mike Lonergan said Stiefel’s ad is “full of fake clips” meant to “smear” the GOP gubernatorial nominee — which, to be fair, is the point of using disclaimed AI in an attack ad.
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