The Huffington Post is calling on Joe Biden’s re-election campaign to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) “deepfakes” to minimize his age and verbal stumbles. “Joe Biden is old and has had a lifelong stutter… AI augmentations and video renderings could serve to smooth out these bumps while allowing the Biden campaign to effectively disseminate true information about the state of our democracy and the Biden administration’s accomplishments,” argues Kaivan Shroff, a Hillary Clinton campaign veteran, in the article titled ‘It’s Time for the Biden Campaign to Embrace AI.’
The opinion piece details how AI technology could create videos incorporating parts of authentic recordings but free of the 81-year-old incumbent’s usual gaffes. Shroff suggests that the Biden campaign could use AI to “polish how the president comes across, allowing voters to focus on his substance.”
He concedes that “some may challenge the use of AI as dishonest and deceptive” but claims “the current information ecosystem is arguably no better.”
“AI-enhanced videos could ensure that the public does not make decisions about the future of our democracy based on an inconveniently timed cough, stray stutter, or healthy but hobbled walk,” he says.
Shroff also raises the question of so-called “cheap fakes”—real videos that show Biden acting confused or appearing weak, which his apologists claim are not representative. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is pushing the term especially hard.
Chris Tomlinson contributed to this report.
