Elon Musk has shared a fake AI video that labels Vice President Kamala Harris as the “ultimate diversity hire.”
Harris is actively campaigning to receive the official Democratic nomination as she looks to become the 47th U.S. president, facing off against former President Donald Trump. She has already received the blessing of President Joe Biden, who will no longer be running for re-election.
“On behalf of the American people, I thank Joe Biden for his extraordinary leadership as President of the United States and for his decades of service to our country,” Harris wrote on Instagram. “I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and my intention is to earn and win this nomination. I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party—and unite our nation—to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”
Harris’s announcement has been met with skepticism. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, some critics are dismissing her as a “diversity hire,” despite her proven track record of competency, which includes serving as District Attorney of San Francisco, Attorney General of California, U.S. Senator from California, and Vice President of the United States — the first Black woman and first South Asian American to hold this office.
“I think she’s one of the weakest candidates I’ve ever seen in the history of our country,” Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyoming) said, per The Hill. “Intellectually just really kind of the bottom of the barrel, and from the standpoint of just who she is and the policies and the positions that she’s taken.”
On July 26, 2024, Musk shared on X, a platform formerly known as Twitter and was acquired by the Tesla CEO, a campaign video that displays Harris making negative comments about President Biden and labeling herself as “the ultimate diversity hire.” However, this campaign video was not released by Harris’ campaign and was created by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“I Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for President because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate, thanks Joe. I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire,” she said in the video clip that is nearly two minutes long. “I’m both a woman and a person of color. So, if you criticize anything I say you’re both sexist and racist. I may not know the first thing about running the country, but remember that’s a good thing if you’re a deep state puppet.”
Musk appeared to be amused with the clip as he commented, “This is amazing,” and added a laughing emoji.
This is amazing 😂
pic.twitter.com/KpnBKGUUwn— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 26, 2024
Not everyone is content with the video clip. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-California) denounced the video and urged for regulations around AI.
“Well, in addition to it being disgusting, it shows you just how dangerous [Musk] is and how dangerous it is for social media not to have guardrails,” Lee explained, per The Hill. “And how we need to make sure that as we look at AI and move forward, that there are some regulatory guardrails and rules that it has to follow. Otherwise, we’re going to see all kinds of unfortunate things happen, which are fake, which shows that anyone can say anything about anyone or do anything and not have any accountability. And accountability is so important.”
She added, “It really is very dangerous. And we need to step up and call for some kind of accountability.”