Taylor Swift endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president on Tuesday after an AI-generated deepfake image posted by Donald Trump appeared to show her supporting the former president, and her message sparked increased interest in voter registration over the next 24 hours.
The popular singer-songwriter, who has so far been silent about her stance on the candidates, expressed support After watching Tuesday night’s debate between Harris and Trump, he said the deepfakes promoted by Trump were a “reminder of the fears of AI and the dangers of spreading misinformation.”
“I’ve come to the conclusion that as voters, I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election,” Swift said. “The easiest way to combat misinformation is to tell the truth.”
Swift’s Instagram post included a link to Vote.gov, a resource for registering to vote, and within the next 24 hours, about 406,000 people visited the site. The New York Times Thursday. Vote.gov was directing users to state voter registration sites, but it was unclear how many people had actually registered.
Still, the Times noted that of the roughly 727,000 people who visited Vote.gov between Tuesday and Wednesday, more than half came from Swift’s link.
Swift’s endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Harris comes after Trump posted a tweet on his Truth Social platform. Accepted Swift’s supportHe also posted AI-generated deepfake image of Swift And her fans, known as Swifties, appear to be showing their support for the Republican presidential candidate.
Trump responded to the image with the words “I accept it.” Originally posted on X(formerly Twitter) was posted by a user who labeled it satire. One of the images, which was reposted on Trump’s Truth social account, included the word “satire” in the image’s text.
Conversely, Trump He falsely accused the Harris campaign. They say they used AI to fake photos taken at the August rally, exaggerating the size of the crowd. Many more videos and photos Photos from the event showed crowds similar in size to those seen in Harris’ campaign photos.
read more: Election deepfakes are here, and they’re better than ever
Advances in artificial intelligence, particularly the rapid evolution of AI-generative tools over the past two years, have made it easier to create convincing deepfakes — manipulated images, videos and audio that make people appear to say things they may not have said or done. Experts worry that these deepfakes could influence how or whether people vote ahead of the November presidential election.
Experts say the best way to protect yourself from deepfakes is to be skeptical and pay close attention to details — for example, AI-generated deepfake videos may have unusual movements, lighting or phrasing — and to evaluate whether the source is credible and do your own fact-checking.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
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