Cuomo Deepfaked Himself. You Can Too.
Andrew Cuomo’s first campaign ad for the New York general election depicts him trading on the New York Stock Exchange, operating a subway, and washing windows from dizzying heights. The unreal scenes and glossy patina of the images are immediately recognizable as AI to anyone who spends time on online platforms today—opening the door for an easy retort from rival Zohran Mamdani: “Maybe a fake Cuomo is better than the real one?” A year ago, a political ad made with the help of AI would likely have been seen as a controversial violation of content standards on many online platforms. But Cuomo’s ad wasn’t even the buzziest example of AI-generated video in politics that week. President Trump mocked Democratic leaders in a video derided as racist, while California governor Gavin Newsom shot back with videos of a cartoonishly oafish JD Vance.
Last year, anxiety about deepfakes spreading political misinformation was still alive and well, with experts fearing the 2024 election would be America’s first “AI election.” AI-generated images and videos of public figures were not allowed by Google and OpenAI. Now AI companies are quietly abandoning the guardrails around image and video generation. New TikTok-style apps from OpenAI and Meta make it simple for anyone to create videos of real people in invented situations. And politicians like Cuomo who are openly embracing AI-generated video of themselves make it all the easier for tech companies to justify a rollback in protections.
Related Knowledge Center: Artificial intelligence
On top of a failing business model, newsrooms must navigate the powerful — and not fully reliable — new capabilities of artificial intelligence and the deployment of large language models.
State of the business model | Copyright and intellectual property
Related Knowledge Center: Democracy and politics
News organizations are scrambling to find a coverage approach that adequately informs the American public about the country’s slide from democracy to authoritarian rule.