Artificial intelligence has emerged as a multifaceted issue in the 2024 presidential election.
From questions about how AI should be treated in policy to former President Donald Trump's false claim that images of Vice President Kamala Harris' crowd were artificially generated, the emerging technology has become a key part of the political landscape.
This is a difficult new hurdle facing people all over the world, and it can be scary, but experts and authorities are doing all they can to help people discern what's real and what's not.
In early August, a photo of Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz, walking into a crowd in Detroit was questioned by opponents on social media, with Trump claiming “she did it with an AI” and “there was no one there,” while some supporters argued. They pointed to a reflection on an airplane as evidence it was AI-generated.
This false claim has been refuted by video and testimony from attendees — the Harris campaign said 15,000 people attended the rally at the Detroit airport, a figure corroborated by reporters, photographers and videojournalists from multiple news outlets — but the misinformation continued to spread.
“There's a lot of evidence that it was real,” said Matt Groh of Northwestern University.
Experts like Groh say several things stood out in proving the photo's authenticity.
“This was real because you could see the crowd from different angles, there are different photos,” Groh said. “There are a lot of photos that are shot into the crowd, and a lot of photos that look into the crowd.”
“Some of these models are pretty good, so we need to do a bit more research to figure them out, but there's absolutely no indication that it was generated by AI,” said Brian Plummer of Boston University.
But for many people, it's not that simple — and as technology advances, it may become even harder to tell the difference.
Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories delivered to your inbox.
“Unfortunately, they have to be vigilant about the information that comes to them,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said.
Campbell is among those trying to play it safe.
“All of our laws apply to AI just as they apply to humans who are committing fraud,” she said.
She calls for action and accountability from all levels of government.
“The companies and individuals spreading misinformation may not even be based in Massachusetts, so we're making sure we're working collectively and collaboratively,” Campbell said.
When making decisions about what you see on the internet, you should verify the source. Make sure the person or organization posting it is trustworthy. In cases like claims about crowd size, look for images that show alternative angles of what you're looking at and be wary of anything suspicious about the image.
