Eric Hovde
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Maybe you’ve seen this political commercial. It stands out because one of the shots is so… unusually memorable.
It’s from a political action group that’s spending millions against Republican senate candidate Eric Hovde. The group is WinSenate.Org. Their claim is the tired old troupe that Hovde is a California banker. No, Hovde is a Wisconsinite, from Madison. He uses some of the fortune he’s amassed to help orphans in Africa.
The shot that I wonder about in the commercial shows Eric Hovde wearing a viking horn hat. That’s unusual. He and his wife are on a dance floor. It’s either a party or a charity fundraiser of some sort. Hovde and the viking horns has never been fully explained.
In a longer version of the commercial, the woman, supposedly Hovde’s wife, is throwing dollar bills into the air. I question whether that shot is real, or if it’s a deep fake. The dollars look like they’re superimposed into the shot. And, in this longer version of the commercial, you can’t really see the woman’s face. And it’s such an unusual image – the wife of a political candidate, wearing viking horns, throwing dollars into the air – that I wonder, is it AI generated?
There’s another reason for my suspicion: the ad – the longer version of it – doesn’t seem to air on regular TV stations. It shows up only on my streaming services, like YouTube and Hulu. That’s important. TV stations are regulated by the FCC. They would have to disclose if a political ad was created with artificial intelligence. Internet streaming services are NOT regulated. The Federal Elections Commission could fine a political action group that runs an AI ad. But most PACs exist for only one political cycle. A fine is irrelevant. They’ll be broke by the time the FEC gets around to doing anything.
If this is the new normal, imagine the ad some anti-Tammy Baldwin PAC could create. All they’d need is two actresses, one could play Tammy, the other could be her girlfriend Maria Brisbane. A narrator could tell the story about how Senator Tammy broke COVID protocols in 2020 for a lovers weekend in New York. Maybe our AI-Tammy and AI-Maria could be placed on a beach at sunset. Maybe in the commercial they’d be holding hands… or stealing a kiss. Certainly it’s tame compared to the 2012 classic where a Paul Ryan look-alike dumped grandma out of her wheelchair and over a cliff.
AI is only going to get better and more convincing. Computer imagery will soon be able to make candidates say things they didn’t say and appear to do things they didn’t do. So which candidates will be the first to disavow these fakes?
Chris Conley
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