Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are once again wading into U.S. politics, joining a campaign to warn American voters against misinformation in the upcoming presidential election.
Their Archewell Foundation and other Hollywood political players are supporting an initiative to prepare U.S. voters for a possible onslaught of AI deepfake information, Axios reported. Specifically, the Archewell Foundation is helping brainstorm new content for the campaign. It is the second time around the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have gotten involved in a presidential election. In the 2020 contest, they urged Americans to sign up to vote and reject misinformation.
In the aftermath, Republicans and other critics called on the Royal Family to strip the couple of their titles, calling the interference of the Duke and Duchess inappropriate. This year’s campaign is being coordinated by Miles Taylor, chief policy officer of The Future US. Taylor was chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security during Donald Trump’s presidency and was the anonymous author of a New York Times op-ed revealing the dangers of the Trump presidency.
He’s now ringing alarm bells about the use of fake videos and images. ‘This is a disaster waiting to happen — no one’s doing the public inoculation,’ he told Axios. With the advent of cheap generative AI and a plethora of social media platforms available, experts are warning manipulated images, edited videos, and misleading robocalls could dominate this year’s politics.
Compounding matters is a lack of regulation and coordination between the relevant federal agencies and social media companies. ‘The government isn’t talking to social media companies. Many of the social media companies don’t want anything to do with the government — which means novel AI threats could get missed,’ Taylor noted.
Google, Meta, and OpenAI have pledged to combat deceptive AI election content, while two advertisements have been produced by Jesse Dylan, Bob Dylan’s son, to raise awareness for the issue. The ads will run this spring in battleground states. The involvement of the Sussexes will restoke questions about Meghan’s political ambitions. A representative for the Duke and Duchess did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
