House Democrats are pressuring the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to impose new rules to censor the X platform’s Grok-2 AI art generator before the presidential election.
Democrat House members sent a letter to FEC Acting General Counsel Lisa Stevenson pleading that the agency “restrict” the Grok-2 AI art generator because it “has the potential to severely misinform voters, causing confusion and disseminating dangerous falsehoods.”
“This election cycle we have seen candidates use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in campaign ads to depict themselves or another candidate engaged in an action that did not happen or saying something the depicted candidate did not say,” the letter reads.
The letter went on to complain about Trump using “misleading” AI-generated memes and argued censoring Grok is “critical for our democracy.”
On August 14, 2024, X (formerly Twitter) introduced their AI image generator Grok-2 with few rules to combat its misuse. In fact, there are no policies that would allow the platform to restrict images of public figures that could be potentially misleading.
Less than 24 hours after its debut, fake images of presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama appeared on X. Candidate Trump has even gone as far as promoting false endorsements from celebrities like Taylor Swift on his social media platforms.
“The proliferation of deep-fake AI technology has the potential to severely misinform voters, causing confusion and disseminating dangerous falsehoods. It is critical for our democracy that this be promptly addressed, nothing the degree to which Grok-2 has already been used to distribute fake content regarding the 2024 presidential election,” the letter concludes.
But FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey swiftly shut down the Democrats’ request, asserting that restricting free speech is “not optional.”
“Let me be clear: the First Amendment is not optional. I’ll never support shutting down political speech online, including your memes,” Cooksey responded on X.
Democratic House Members are now pressuring the FEC to issue new rules to censor @elonmusk‘s new Grok-2 AI art generator before the election.
Let me be clear: the First Amendment is not optional. I’ll never support shutting down political speech online, including your memes. pic.twitter.com/0SnmkjijRk
— Sean Cooksey (@SeanJCooksey) August 27, 2024
Trump last week shared an AI image of Taylor Swift dressed as Uncle Sam with the caption, “Taylor Wants YOU to vote for Donald Trump!” to which Trump added, “I accept!”
Trump has since deleted the post, possibly to avoid a costly lawsuit since Swift has a reputation for sending cease-and-desist letters to anyone who uses her name, image or likeness without obtaining prior consent.
“I don’t know anything about them, other than somebody else generated them,” Trump told Fox Business. “I didn’t generate them.”
“Somebody came out. They said, ‘Oh look at this,’” he continued. “These were all made up by other people. AI is always very dangerous in that way.”
But the Democrat Party isn’t concerned about “disinformation” given they’re the progenitors of plenty of false narratives (Russia collusion, COVID lab leak, Hunter Biden laptop, Jan. 6, Jussie Smollett, etc.).
Rather, they’re terrified that AI-based memes are devastating their narrative, especially when shared by President Trump.
For example, a Grok image Trump shared that’s garnered over 80 million views depicts Harris giving a speech with the communist hammer and sickle flag hanging in a Chicago arena and an audience of Maoists standing at attention before her.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 18, 2024
Other viral AI-generated memes and obvious parodies have mocked Kamala’s copycat proposal to build a wall on the southern border and communist plan to impose price controls.
OK, WHO DID THIS?????? pic.twitter.com/zNWShT9xYo
— il Donaldo Trumpo (@PapiTrumpo) August 27, 2024
Changing the clown won’t change the circus. pic.twitter.com/AydNps8Nv3
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) August 23, 2024
Good vs Evil 2024. pic.twitter.com/TRzomm59er
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) August 16, 2024
— Jamie White (@whiteisthefury) August 14, 2024
“Equity is a goal of ensuring everyone ends up in the same place” – Kamala Harris pic.twitter.com/Tj6LLh6DiZ
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 14, 2024
? Just in:
.@VP .@KamalaHarris ????? ??????? ???? ??????? ?? ??? ?? ???????. ?
(This is parody) pic.twitter.com/e0WVk6LyAP
— ????????????????™ (@1776Diva) August 21, 2024
Since Kamala loves to use AI I think we should too. pic.twitter.com/pxtuLsQXSY
— BoomBoomJenkins (@JenkinsBoom) August 18, 2024
Kamala caught hammering a bottle of vodka. No just kidding this is a picture Grok made. AI. Looks pretty good. pic.twitter.com/Ly1BF4FtP0
— Joey franko (@franko_ufo) August 18, 2024
Kamala Harris at the upcoming debate. pic.twitter.com/yuPa5gsluE
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) August 27, 2024
