By Curtis Bunn—
NBC News
Wayne L. Smith, an engineer based in the US capital, laughed last week at an image of Donald Trump happily surrounded by smiling black men.
But seeing the image immediately alarmed him.
“Everything [Trump] does to try to please black [voters] is disingenuous,” Smith said.
“Why wouldn't that photo also be fake?
"It just didn't seem strange to me."
Smith's instinct about the photo was correct: It was created by Mark Kaye, a conservative radio host who supports Trump and who admitted to using artificial intelligence to create the image, before posting it on his social media, where he has more than one million followers.
Kaye did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
“I don't go outside to take photos of the reality of what is happening.
"I'm a storyteller," Kaye told BBC News, which traced the origin of the images.
And she added: “If someone votes one way or another for a photo they see on a Facebook page, it is that person's problem, not the publication's.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request from NBC News for comment for this article.
But last week a campaign official said: “The only people using AI to meddle in an election are President Trump's opponents.
The former president's campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these AI images.
“We also can’t control what other people create and post.”
“They want our vote but they don't know how to get it”
This election cycle, Trump has made some progress among black voters.
16% of them said in an NBC News poll published in February that they would consider voting for him if the election were held today.
That contrasts with the 12% who supported him in 2020.
Still, these photos are the latest in a series of clumsy efforts — including claims that he is being persecuted by the legal system — by Trump, his campaign and his supporters to try to show a connection with Black voters.
“They want our vote but they don't know how to get it,” Smith said.
“Biden is no peach, but he is no Trump.
And they know it.
That's why they try everything.
Tricks.
Tricks.
And, to me, that insult only makes things worse.”
Rhonda Sherrod, who this year ran as a Democratic candidate for the Senate in Illinois, said that these maneuvers to attract black voters are based on racist stereotypes and can be insulting.
At a recent NBC News forum that brought together likely black voters, all participants agreed that Trump's rhetoric can often be racist.
16% of black voters indicated in a February NBC News poll that they would consider voting for Donald Trump.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images file
“They accused me for nothing, for something that is nothing,” Trump assured a group of black conservatives in South Carolina last month before the state's primary.
“And a lot of people said that's why black people like me, because they've been hurt a lot and discriminated against, and in fact they saw me as if they were discriminating against me.”
At the same time, efforts to misrepresent black voters as supporting Trump may also appeal to white voters unhappy with some of his statements and actions, said Calvin Lawrence, IBM's head of training for responsible and trustworthy AI. .
“What about those white independents who don't like him and won't vote for him for the sole reason that they think he's racist?” Lawrence questioned.
“When you see these
deepkafe
videos and AI-generated images with him surrounded by black people, they're also targeting those white voters and saying, 'Look.
I am not racist.
He's not racist.'”
In addition to the AI-generated photos, Trump has also boasted that black voters will support him, citing his historic mug shot.
“My mugshot,” Trump told the black conservative group.
“We've all seen the mugshot, and do you know who embraced it more than anyone else?
The black population.
You see black people walking around with my mugshot.
They make t-shirts and sell them for $19 each.
It's pretty amazing.
Millions by the way.”
[Groups seek to prevent artificial intelligence from being used to misinform about the US elections]
In February, Trump unveiled the Never Surrender High-Top Sneaker, a limited-edition $399 gold sneaker with American flag details, a day after he and his company were sentenced to pay a $453 million fine. for real estate fraud.
Raymond Arroyo, a Fox News contributor, indicated that same month that the launch would be attractive to black voters, because “they love sneakers.”
These efforts “are nothing more than bigotry disguised as a campaign,” said Rahna Epting, executive director of the progressive organization MoveOn.
“Black voters have real concerns about tangible issues like the economy, security and health care.”
Elections and the threat of artificial intelligence
For many, the disingenuous use of AI is especially alarming.
Elizabeth M. Adams, an artificial intelligence expert, told NBC News that the images of Trump generated by Kaye using this technology are the epitome of “using the tool for bad purposes.”
But the images also didn't surprise Adams, who is president of EMA Advisory Services, a company that focuses on the responsible use of AI.
“Artificial intelligence is really training a computer to think quickly, like a human, but at a much faster pace,” he explained.
“And when, in a case like this, it becomes a weapon, it is also a mirror of society.
“It reflects all the things people think and the prejudices they have.”
It's also concerning, Adams added.
“It's very unfortunate, but it's a consequence of what happens when you don't have a good vision of how AI should be used,” she said.
Lawrence, author of the book
Hidden in White Sight: How AI Empowers and Deepens Systemic Racism
, said he is concerned about what Trump and his supporters might do with this technology.
[Disinformation is an unprecedented threat to the 2024 elections and the US is less prepared than ever]
“The biggest goal here is to ensure that these
deepfakes
have a long-term effect on creating a distrustful society, in which people no longer believe what they are told or what they see.
If that happens, it will not be possible to distinguish what is real from a lie.
The truth is eroded.”
And he gave as an example the murder of George Floyd in 2020. “Imagine if the nation thought that the video of that woman was fake, generated by AI?” he said about the video that a bystander recorded with her cell phone of Floyd's fatal incident. with Minneapolis police.
“If people didn't believe what they saw, would we have had a social justice movement?”
This is just the beginning of AI's impact on elections, Adams and Lawrence said.
For Chicago psychologist Sherrod, who ran for state Senate this year, it's worrying.
“It's going to be a very tough political season,” said Sherrod, author of the book
Surviving, Healing and Evolving: Essays of Love, Compassion, Healing and Affirmation for Black People
.
“In this cycle, the legitimacy of democracy is at stake.”
The volatility of the campaign — with its racial undertones and potential for disseminating misleading information — and the possibility of Trump returning to the White House may take a toll on Black voters, Sherrod added.
“From a psychological point of view, many of us are already tired.
“We have been bombarded with so much information,” he explained.
“A lot of times that means that if you see something that catches your attention, you have to try to find other sources to find out if it's credible or not.
But it's worth making sure we have the right person in the White House.”