On Sunday, Donald Trump shared an AI-generated image of Taylor Swift in the style of an Uncle Sam propaganda poster. In the picture, Swift pointed at the audience and told fans to vote for Trump.
On Wednesday, Fox Business asked Trump if he was worried if Swift would sue him.
“I don’t know anything about them other than somebody else generated them, I didn’t generate them,” he said of the pictures he shared on his personal account on the website he owns. “Somebody came out, they said ‘Oh look at this’, these were all made up by other people. AI is always very dangerous in that way.”
Former President Trump on the AI-generated images of Taylor Swift: “I don't know anything about them other than somebody else generated them.” pic.twitter.com/gBEzxx4L4o
— Grady Trimble (@Grady_Trimble) August 21, 2024
Trump complained that he, himself, has also been the victim of misrepresentation at the hands of AI.
“It’s happening with me too,” he said. “They’re having me speak. I speak perfectly, I mean absolutely perfectly, on AI—and I’m like endorsing other products and things. It’s a little bit dangerous out there.”
Swift is famously litigious and protectful of her image. As noted by 404 Media, Trump’s posts could be illegal in states like Tennessee. In March, the state’s governor signed the Ensuring Likeness, Voice, and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, which protects the rights of artists from having their voices and likeness appropriated.
As of this writing, the images he claims to know nothing about are still up on his Truth Social page.
Trump expressed fear around AI-generated images six months ago in another Fox Business interview. He said it was “maybe the most dangerous thing out there of anything because there’s no real solution.”
“It is so scary,” he said. “I saw somebody ripping me off the other day where they had me making a speech about their product. I said, ‘I never endorsed that product,’ and I’m telling you you can’t even tell the difference. It looks like I’m endorsing the product.”
The reporter expressed her shock. “You can get that into wars and you can get that into other things,” he said. “Something has to be done about this and it has to be done fast. And nobody really knows what to do.”
His statements stand in stark contrast to the Republican party platform. In 2023, following a viewing of Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning, Joe Biden got worried about AI. He signed an executive order aimed at making AI safer and more trustworthy.
The 2024 GOP platform outlines a plan to repeal that executive order.
“We will repeal Joe Biden’s dangerous Executive Order that hinders AI Innovation, and imposes Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology,” it said. “In its place, Republicans support AI Development rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.”
Six months ago, Trump bemoaned the lack of solutions to the AI problem. “The technology is so good and it’s so powerful that what you say in the interview with you almost doesn’t matter anymore,” he said. “They can change things around and no one can tell the difference. Even experts can’t tell the difference. This is a tremendous problem in terms of security. This is a problem that they better get working on right now.”
