• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, July 29, 2024

Christopher Kohls, a YouTuber better known online as Mr. Reagan, created a video parody spoofing Vice President Kamala Harris and posted it to his channel on YouTube.

The video, which was apparently altered using an AI simulator, clones Harris’ voice. It gained the attention of X owner Elon Musk, who shared it on his social media platform last week without noting it was released as parody. And that's where the trouble began.

It shows the importance of stating within the content of the video that the content is a parody.

Reagan is a conservative social and political commentator. He appears to have created it in his own political view, and has Harris saying things she did not actually say.

The video parody is raising concerns about the power of AI to mislead viewers despite it being a parody in his own personal view.

The post on X appears to violate the platform’s policies against synthetic and manipulated media, and it could violate YouTube’s policies as well, although it has the entertaining qualities of a parody.

The video alters a recent campaign video Harris released. In the clip, Harris says that she is “the ultimate diversity hire” and that she “had four years under the tutelage of the ultimate deep state puppet, a wonderful mentor, Joe Biden.”

Reagan’s YouTube account posted the video labeling it as “Kamala Harris Campaign Ad PARODY,” a disclaimer that might have prevented it from violating X’s policies. But this context did not appear in Musk’s repost.

Musk showed the video, adding his own commentary, without stating it was a parody. He wrote on X, “This is amazing,” adding a laughing emoji.

Advertisers, publishers and storytellers have used synthetic voice technology in many advertisements to achieve the exact tone and rhythm of voiceovers, but the biggest challenge is that the AI software is readily available to clone any voice with or without the person’s permission.

ElevenLabs, for example, promotes a voice cloning platform that anyone can try for free. Text-to-speech software that uses AI can easily learn to mimic a specific voice. CNET has an entire video on voice cloning, although the media outlet says it does not condone someone cloning a voice without the person’s permission.