|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By Guy Page
Artificial intelligence has arrived in Vermont politics, and whether you laughed at the latest video or found it offensive, it raises questions that aren’t going away.
An AI-generated cartoon making fun of Congresswoman Becca Balint is making the rounds online. In the video, an artificial version of Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vermont) says things she never actually said, while Republican candidate Mark Coester is portrayed as the hero who literally scoops her up with a backhoe and dumps her in a dumpster.
Balint is furious. She calls it deceptive and dangerous and says it proves the need for federal legislation to prevent unauthorized AI replicas of people’s voices and images.
“This ad is offensive and a dangerous example of what happens when AI is used to deceive voters,” Balint wrote in a statement published in a Facebook post. “Fabricating my voice and image to put words in my mouth is a new low. Free speech is a cornerstone of our democracy, but impersonation and deception are not.”
Balint adds that the video is an example of why she introduced the federal NO FAKES Act to “give people protections against unauthorized AI replicas of their voice and likeness and bring greater transparency and accountability to AI-generated content.”
The producer of the video is not known. Coester says he had nothing to do with it. It appeared on the Planet Hank platform, and someone looking a lot like videographer Hank Poitras appears standing next to Coester in the video.
Technology now allows almost anyone to create convincing fake audio and video. A few years ago that would have taken a Hollywood studio. Today it can be done on a laptop. If voters can’t tell what’s real from what’s fake, democracy has a problem.
But there’s another side to this debate.
Political cartoons have been mocking public officials for hundreds of years. Thomas Nast skewered Boss Tweed. Newspapers routinely exaggerate politicians’ features, words and actions to make a point. Television shows imitate presidents and governors. Saturday Night Live has built an institution around putting words into politicians’ mouths for laughs.
So where is the line?
If someone creates an AI video and falsely presents it as genuine news footage, that’s deception. If someone uses AI to commit fraud or impersonate another person for financial gain, that’s already illegal in many contexts.
But if AI becomes simply the newest tool for satire, parody and political commentary, banning it outright could collide with the First Amendment.
The answer may not be prohibition but transparency. Require labels. Let viewers know they’re watching synthetic media. Let the audience judge the joke with full knowledge that it’s fiction.
Ironically, this controversy may end up educating more Vermonters about artificial intelligence than any government seminar ever could. People are beginning to realize that seeing is no longer believing.
The technology isn’t going away. The challenge for lawmakers is to stop fraud without outlawing satire, to protect reputations without protecting politicians from ridicule.
Because in America, making fun of elected officials isn’t just allowed. It’s practically a national pastime.
And as AI gets better, we’re all going to need sharper eyes—and perhaps a better sense of humor.
Discover more from Vermont Daily Chronicle
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Sorry Becca, the AI genie is out of the bottle. It is obvious to any person with a brain that it was not actually Becca participating in the ad, whether you support the self-anointed “scrappy little dyke” or not. As collectively stupid the human race has become under socialism, no one is being deceived here. The content and style of the ad is no different than in campaign ads going back decades, where the opponent is depicted in black and white and in slow motion. She and her party are free to use the same technology and format to target Gov. Scott, President Trump, Tom Homan, ICE or capitalism in general. It does seem to be liberals who lack the sense of humor.
“If voters can’t tell what’s real from what’s fake, democracy has a problem.”
‘Twas ever thus, Guy. Just a new medium.
And who knew Mark was so danged handsome????!
“Nishad Singh, the 27-year-old FTX executive who bankrolled a torrent of campaign ads boosting U.S. Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) during last year’s Democratic primary, admitted in federal court on Tuesday that his election contributions were fraudulent.” And then for Balint to have the balls to say she didn’t collaborate with the PAC that funded the ads is “deceptive and dangerous” and proves the need for federal legislation to prevent it happening in the future. https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/crypto-exec-who-bankrolled-pro-balint-ads-pleads-guilty-to-straw-donor-scheme-37696696/
I don’t understand her problem with this. I guess the truth hurts.
That video was obviously satire although it’s my belief that it struck very close to home. Maybe that’s why her panties are in a knot.
The problem with this ad, isn’t whether people can tell that it is fake.
The problem is that Becca Balint does not represent anyone but her own interests.
Her staff was contacted about a disabled senior who is being blocked by nefarious interests from receiving the federal funding they qualified for to keep their home from collapsing into the river. One phone call from Balint would save their home and their life.
Her staff member who answers the phone let it be known that they only care about their own people, and no one else.
Balint has proven in congressional hearings to be a DNC lapdog who is in the pocket of big pharma.
I would vote for a rabid weasel before this fauxalist.
But videos like this are so hyperbolic without getting to the meat of any specific issues (like big pharma, for example), so it gives her free advertising that helps her seem like the victim.
In other words, her opponents tactics are giving her pity clout.
This is serious.
We need an honest person who represents everyone equally and with fairness. We need someone who is accessible and who does not refuse to speak with their constituents.
We don’t have time for childish games.
I would like to know who is funding each candidates campaign and what they care about, and what they plan to make a change.
Then I would like to see how effectively they care for the most vulnerable among us, as compared to how they cater to corporate donors and their insular tribe.
Vermont needs a lot of care in these rapidly changing times, and I don’t see either one of these candidates capable of a nuanced, compassionate problem solving.
More of the same tribalism and self-interest….just different “sides”.
“if AI becomes simply the newest tool for satire, parody and political commentary, banning it outright could collide with the First Amendment.” Correction: such restrictions WOULD collide with our most precious rights, which is exactly why the Marxist Balint who ignores the constitution wants it taken from us. Political speech is afforded the highest of legal protections; satire has a vital role in protected speech. Balint is a bonehead who likes to show off what a scrappy little moron she truly is. (I thought I’d say so before it becomes illegal — not satire though. Just reality.)
John, perhaps ms Balent, has been under the impression that her party controls the narrative. They seem to believe they control the facts. Satire is not allowed against their facts or beliefs!
Great Job Guy Page .
By the looks of current activity, Becca Balint Crying 😭 on X .
Many more Liberal DEM reps are jumping on her Bandwagon to pass laws banning Memes and the first Amendment rights of Americans.
Commies will be Commies .
Ultimately , I believe this will Backfire and Snowball in to Millions of AI memes and Videos, mocking the Cry babies who are so easily Triggered .
We don’t make Memes to Mock the left because it’s easy .
We do it because it’s Fun .