Barbara Lee: Musk sharing fake Harris video shows need for AI guardrails

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) denounced a deepfake video shared by Elon Musk impersonating Vice President Harris, adding support Monday for regulation of the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

The video Musk shared Friday on social platform X mocks a Harris campaign ad and features voiceover calling Biden senile, and Harris the “ultimate diversity hire.” 

“I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate,” the mock Harris voice says in the video. “I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire. I’m both a woman and a person of color, so if you criticize anything I say, you’re both sexist and racist.” 

Lee called the video “dangerous” and went after Musk personally in a CNN interview Monday.

“Well, in addition to it being disgusting, it shows you just how dangerous [ Musk] is and how dangerous it is for social media not to have guardrails,” she said. “And how we need to make sure that as we look at AI and move forward, that there are some regulatory guardrails and rules that it has to follow.” 

“Otherwise, we’re going to see all kinds of unfortunate things happen, which are fake, which shows that anyone can say anything about anyone or do anything and not have any accountability. And accountability is so important,” she continued.

“It really is very dangerous. And we need to step up and call for some kind of accountability,” Lee said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) also called out the post, saying such videos should be against the law.

“Manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal,” he wrote on X. “I’ll be signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is.”

Federal regulators have increasingly looked to crack down on the use of deepfake technology to impersonate politicians after a New Hampshire man used Biden’s voice in a robocall attempting to stifle turnout in the state’s primary election earlier this year.

The Federal Communications Commission advanced a proposal last week to force advertisers to disclose the use of AI in advertisements on television and radio. The use of mimic voices is already banned for use in robocalls.

The Harris campaign similarly shot back at Musk over the video.

“We believe the American people want the real freedom, opportunity, and security Vice President Harris is offering; not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump,” campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement to The Hill.