Right-wing Real America’s Voice (RAV) network conducted an exclusive telephonic interview with Donald Trump last week but many claim the voice was an AI fake.
John Solomon, former Fox News commentator, and co-host Amanda Head interviewed Trump via telephone for about 17 minutes. Trump sounded a little funny and the line wasn’t great at times. It sounded like his nose was blocked and he slurred his s’s but the dialogue sounded like him.
People who listened to the interview on Rumble commented that the voice wasn’t Trump’s with some claiming it was AI-generated. One comment summed up the sentiment with, “Everyone is getting paranoid. Now everything is AI.”
Matt Wolking, director for the right-wing PAC Never Back Down and a DeSantis supporter, tweeted, “I don’t know who did this interview, but it does not sound like Donald Trump.”
I don’t know who did this interview, but it does not sound like Donald Trump. https://t.co/f1VSLEvdKA
— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) August 31, 2023
If it was a real-time AI fake voice impersonating Trump it was pretty good, even with the weird sounds at times.
The Daily Beast picked up on the story and contacted John Solomon about the claims but Solomon insisted, “It’s not AI, it was President Trump.”
The Daily Beast decided to dig a little deeper and then things got even stranger. They claimed to have spoken telephonically with Robert Sigg, the owner of Performance One Media, the parent company of RAV.
The Daily Beast quoted Siggs as saying that Trump sounded like “ChatGOP” and that the network was launching an internal investigation.
When Gizmodo made inquiries, an RAV spokesperson said this wasn’t true and that the person claiming to be Siggs was a fake. The Daily Beast has since updated its article.
Was Trump a little under the weather and speaking without his dentures, or was it a fake AI-generated voice? Trump seemed happy with the interview as he posted it to his Truth Social account.
Whatever the truth of the matter is, it highlights the serious trust issues AI is creating. Deepfakes, especially politically charged ones, can have serious societal consequences.
The most serious danger is not just that we could be convinced of something that is false, but that we begin to doubt the things that are true.
