Elon Musk under fire for sharing fake AI Kamala Harris video, raising election integrity concerns

A fake, artificial intelligence-generated video of Vice President Kamala Harris has been widely viewed online since being shared on X by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

The clip used a cloning tool to copy the voice of VP Kamala Harris and pretend she's saying things she's actually never said.

As of Tuesday morning, over 132 million accounts have viewed Musk's share of the video .

The video has renewed concerns over the use of AI in politics and has gotten the attention of several Bay Area lawmakers.

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"I think it was really unfortunate and, I'd argue, irresponsible of Elon Musk to share the obviously deceptive deepfake of Vice President Harris," said Assemblymember Marc Berman.

Berman has been championing more regulations on AI-generated material in California for years.

A few months ago, he introduced a bill in the state legislature that would force social media companies to regulate this type of content during election seasons.

"To be able to identify this content. And then, when they do, either to block it entirely if it's extraordinarily nefarious and damaging. Or to label it," Berman said.

Berman isn't alone in his calls for more oversight, says Tiffany Li.

Li is an associate professor at the University of San Francisco and an expert in deepfake videos.

"But it's not just something that the platforms should do. The government should be taking some action," she said.

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Li says combating this type of content is about protecting election integrity.

She says in a healthy democracy, it's critical for people to be able to have confidence that the material they might be seeing is real.

"People might actually vote based on what they see in a deep fake video, even if it's completely inauthentic. And that's dangerous in and of itself," Li said.

Assm. Berman says he's hopeful his bill will become law sometime over the next few weeks.

Taking steps to protect everyone, no matter which side of the political spectrum they may fall.

"Voters want to believe in the integrity of our elections and the integrity of our democracy. So I think this is something that has remarkable bipartisan support," Berman said.