A lot of AI-generated images of celebrities are circulating on the internet.

Queenie Wong and Wendy Lee, Tribune News Service

The patriotic image shows megastar Taylor Swift dressed up like Uncle Sam, falsely suggesting she endorses Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. “Taylor Wants You To Vote For Donald Trump,” the image, which appears to be generated by artificial intelligence, says. Over the weekend, Trump amplified the lie when he shared the image along with others depicting support from Swift fans to his 7.6 million followers on his social network Truth Social. Deception has long played a part in politics, but the rise of artificial intelligence tools that allow people to rapidly generate fake images or videos by typing out a phrase adds another complex layer to a familiar problem on social media. Known as deepfakes, these digitally-altered images and videos can make it appear someone is saying or doing something they aren’t. As the race between Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris intensifies, disinformation experts are sounding the alarm about generative technology’s risks.

“I’m worried as we move closer to the election, this is going to explode,” said Emilio Ferrara, a computer science professor at USC Viterbi School of Engineering. “It’s going to get much worse than it is now.” Platforms such as Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, have rules against manipulated images, audio and videos, but they’ve struggled to enforce these policies as AI-generated content floods the internet. Faced with accusations they’re censoring political speech, they’ve focused more on labelling content and fact checking, rather than pulling posts down. And there are exceptions to the rules, such as satire, that allow people to create and share fake images online. “We have all the problems of the past, all the myths and disagreements and general stupidity, that we’ve been dealing with for 10 years,” said Hany Farid, a UC Berkeley professor who focuses on misinformation and digital forensics. “Now we have it being supercharged with deepfake images and we are really, really partisan.” Amid the surging interest in technology companies are encouraging people to use new tools that can generate text, images and videos.

Farid, who analysed the Swift images that Trump shared, said they appear to be a mix of both real and fake images, a “devious” way to push out misleading content. People share fake images for various reasons. They might be doing it to just go viral on social media or troll others. Visual imagery is a powerful part of propaganda, warping people’s views on politics including about the legitimacy of the 2024 presidential election, he said. On X, images that appear to be computer-generated depict Swift hugging Trump, holding his hand or singing a duet as the Republican strums a guitar. Social media users have also used other methods to falsely claim Swift endorsed Trump. X labelled one video that falsely claimed Swift endorsed Trump as “manipulated media.” The video, posted in February, uses footage of Swift at the 2024 Grammys and makes it appear as if she’s holding a sign that says, “Trump Won. Democrats Cheated!”

Political campaigns have been bracing for advance technology’s impact on the election. Vice President Harris’ campaign has an interdepartmental team “to prepare for the potential effects of advance technology this election, including the threat of malicious deepfakes,” said spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg in a statement. The campaign only authorizes the use of programme for “productivity tools” such as data analysis, she added.

Trump’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Part of the challenge in curbing fake or manipulated video is that the federal law that guides social media operations doesn’t specifically address deepfakes. The Communications Decency Act of 1996 does not hold social media companies liable for hosting content, as long as they do not aid or control those who posted it. But over the years, tech companies have come under fire for what’s appeared on their platforms and many social media companies have established content moderation guidelines to address this such as prohibiting hate speech. “It’s really walking this tightrope for social media companies and online operators,” said Joanna Rosen Forster, a partner at law firm Crowell & Moring. Legislators are working to address this problem by proposing bills that would require social media companies to take down unauthorized deepfakes.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said in July that he supports legislation that would make altering a person’s voice with the use of AI in a campaign ad illegal. The remarks were a response to a video billionaire Elon Musk, who owns X, shared that uses technology to clone Harris’ voice. Musk, who has endorsed Trump, later clarified that the video he shared was parody.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is one of the groups advocating for laws addressing deepfakes. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator, said social media companies are not doing enough to address the problem.