CNN’s The Lead swapped its real anchor Jake Tapper for a deepfake version, in order to show how deceptive artificial intelligence can be.
“Welcome back to The Lead. I’m Jake Tapper,” it began. “We are in an unprecedented era where technology has vastly outpaced the ability of the public to recognize deepfakes, and even more so lawmakers, many of whom frankly seem unable to manage their email.”
The network then showed a badge indicating that what viewers were watching was itself a deepfake.
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“Take, for example, what you’re watching right now,” it continued. “I’m actually not Jake. I’m a deepfake Jake—a deep Jake, if you will, created by comedian Danny Polishchuk, who has only been using AI for two weeks.”
“The fact that I seem so real,” the AI-generated Tapper concluded, “suggests that real mischief and serious damage could be done with this technology were it to be so utilized in the U.S. as it has been for bad purposes abroad.”
The CNN segment focused on a fake image that recently appeared in a high-profile campaign ad. Indiana Sen. Mike Braun, a Republican running for governor, ran an ad that included a digitally altered image of his Democratic opponent speaking at an anti-gas stove rally. Initial versions of the ad didn’t even include a disclosure that the image had been doctored, a key requirement of a state law meant to address deepfakes.
Tapper reacted: “Welcome to the wild west of TV ads, where technology allows falsehoods to be depicted as facts, blazing unethical trails around the world.”
AI-generated images are becoming more prevalent, with their creators in some cases trying to achieve a partisan objective. One fake image that circulated online recently, for instance, was of former President Donald Trump wading through flood waters caused by Hurricane Helene. Right-wing influencers—some of them with close ties to Trump, like Laura Loomer—also fell for another fake image of a young girl in a lifejacket holding a puppy while being rescued.
Trump himself is no stranger to amplifying fake images, either. Last month, he reposted a fabricated image of Vice President Kamala Harris with Sean “P Diddy” Combs, who has been indicted for sex trafficking and other crimes. In another post, Trump falsely depicted pop star Taylor Swift as having endorsed him.
Swift would go on to endorse Harris, and in so doing called out Trump for his blatant misinformation.
