Today on our live show, David Dayen and Gabrielle Gurley talk about disinformation. At this point in the presidential election, the outlook for Democrats is radically different than it was a month ago, but with less than three months to go until November 5th, there is still time for everything to get worse. Earlier this week, five secretaries of state sent Elon Musk a letter asking him to rein in X’s AI chatbot Grok, which had been spreading false information about presidential ballot deadlines in the wake of Joe Biden dropping out of the race. If that wasn’t bad enough, Musk has often shared AI-generated deepfakes designed to discredit Kamala Harris, and has done little to combat the spread of disinformation running rampant on X.
Disinformation is nothing new for Republicans, who are currently trying to spread false rumors about Tim Walz’s record of military service, but the proliferation of AI-generated disinformation on the internet can influence many more voters at scale. And without meaningful regulation from Congress or rule enforcement from social media platforms, this onslaught of false information could tip the scales this election.
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