‘Time Bomb’: Former RNC Chief Sounds Alarm on Artificial Intelligence in Political Ads After DeSantis Video

Former RNC Chair Michael Steele called the use of Artificial Intelligence in 2024 presidential campaign ads a “time bomb” that “no one is taking seriously.”

Steele said that the average voter won’t question AI in ads because the images look so real.

“Virtually, I would say, probably nine out of ten people looking at a political ad will take it at face value,” Steele said on MSNBC.  “It will get an instant like, it will get an instant retweet, it will get promoted, it will get pushed out. And no one will take the time to go, wait, that picture of Fauci hugging Donald Trump, I don’t ever recall that really happening. Where did that ha—? No one’s going to do that.”

Steele referenced an ad put out by the DeSantis campaign that appeared to show Donald Trump embracing and laughing with Dr. Anthony Fauci during the pandemic. Trump himself has used AI images of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and The Republican National Committee used AI in an ad to speculate on the country’s future if Joe Biden is re-elected in 2024.

“So, what keeps you up at night about this?” asked MSNBC host Lindsey Reiser.

“All of it. All of it,” Steele answered. “Everything that was just said about it. The fact that Congress — Congress can’t even figure out how to do Facebook. Now we’re asking them to do AI? They can’t even figure out how to regulate Facebook and Google.”

Steele continued, “We’re a day late and 10 yards short of where we need to be on this stuff. We’re not proactive in this, we are reactive in this, and it won’t be until after the bottom falls out in the 2024 election cycle that members of Congress or legislative bodies go, ‘Oh, my, we need to do something about this,’ despite the fact that we’ve got incredible reporters out here reporting the story now saying, ‘Hello, there’s a problem. You need to look at this.’ And so, no — no one’s taking this seriously because everyone is pointing fingers at some other group thinking they’re the ones who will handle it or manage it, and no one has a clue exactly how much of a time bomb this really is.”

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.