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A deepfake video featuring a synthetic version of President Joe Biden announcing a national military draft was circulated on social media. Although the creator later admitted the video was AI-generated, the initial post lacked this disclosure, leading to widespread public misinformation. Fact-checkers debunked the video, confirming it was a fabricated attempt to simulate a potential future scenario.
A purportedly AI-generated deepfake video falsely depicting President Biden announcing a national draft to support Ukraine was reportedly shared on social media, causing widespread misinformation. The video reportedly misled the public until debunked by fact-checkers.
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.
Also classified as
The AI-generated video spread false information about a national draft, leading to public confusion and misleading tweets.
The deepfake video of the President declaring a military draft was used to influence public opinion and political discourse at scale on social media.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
The incident was caused by human actors intentionally creating and distributing a deepfake video of President Biden to influence public opinion post-deployment.
Added categories peak at 2: Minor (Epistemic Harm, Direct)
An AI-generated deepfake video of President Joe Biden falsely announcing a national military draft was circulated on social media. While the incident caused temporary public confusion and demonstrated the evolving threat of synthetic media targeting national leadership, it was quickly debunked and had minor overall impact on national security.
The AI system was used as a tool by human creators to synthesize the video and audio of Joe Biden based on direct inputs, performing a specific function without independent decision-making.
Limited Risk: The system is used to generate AI-generated content such as deepfakes, which under the Act requires specific transparency obligations to ensure users are informed.
The AI system was used to synthesize a realistic video and matching audio of President Joe Biden speaking words he never said.
The report from Snopes provides clear, verified details about the video, its creators, how it was distributed, and the fact that it was a deepfake. There is little ambiguity about the events or the technology used.
None
Technology
Generative Adversarial Networks
GANs enabled highly realistic synthetic video and audio generation.
Imperfect Deepfake Realism
Static body movement with only mouth moving indicates technology limitations.
Data Inputs
Use of Existing Footage
Existing footage of Biden talking was manipulated to match a fake script.
Fabricated Audio Script
Synthesized audio script was created to impersonate the President's voice.
Human Factors
Intentional Misinformation
Creators and commentators shared deepfakes to mislead social media users.
Lack of User Verification
Social media users shared the video without verifying its authenticity.
Selective Context Sharing
Commentators omitted the disclaimer in tweets, presenting the video as real.
Process and Methods
Inadequate Platform Moderation
Twitter lacked automated checks to flag or remove misleading AI deepfakes.
Absence of Watermarking
The AI tool did not embed visible or invisible watermarks on the output.
Management
Prioritizing Engagement
Social media platforms prioritize engagement over strict content accuracy.
Regulatory Environment
Lack of Deepfake Regulations
No legal frameworks exist to restrict creating deepfakes of public officials.
AI system involved
An AI system was involved, but the reports do not identify it.
Identified by automated extraction; can differ from the alleged developers above.
