A deepfake video impersonating Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas was posted on Twitter the day before the election, featuring fabricated statements about police violence and defunding the police, which was viewed thousands of times before being removed.
On the eve of Chicago's mayoral election, a deepfake video was posted to Twitter by a recently created account called 'Chicago Lakefront News'. The AI-generated video featured a photo of mayoral candidate Paul Vallas with synthesized audio that closely resembled his voice, making fabricated statements about police violence and supporting 'refunding the police'. The video was viewed thousands of times before Twitter removed it and suspended the account. The Vallas campaign reported the video to Twitter and denounced it as a 'deceptive impersonation video' using deepfake technology to defame the candidate's character. Northwestern University AI expert V.S. Subrahmanian confirmed the deepfake audio was well-made and could be generated in minutes once a voice model is trained. Media experts noted the timing was particularly concerning given the proximity to the election, as misinformation damage is difficult to undo close to important votes. The incident highlights concerns about deepfake technology being used to spread false information and potentially influence democratic processes.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to conduct large-scale disinformation campaigns, malicious surveillance, or targeted and sophisticated automated censorship and propaganda, with the aim of manipulating political processes, public opinion, and behavior.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed