If you’re on Tik Tok in any capacity and your algorithm contains video games, you have probably seen the current and former US presidents “playing” games together. Don’t let these videos fool you. These are all AI-generated, becoming commonplace in social media, especially on Tik Tok and Twitter.
For those unaware, there has been an influx of Tik Toks depicting US presidents like Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Barack Obama playing games like Minecraft, Call of Duty, and Destiny 2 together. There will be some random gameplay at the bottom with a shopped image of one of them speaking through comms on the top.
The presidents make back-and-forth conversations with each other, oftentimes making jabs at each other like “build the wall” jokes at Trump or calling Biden “Sleepy Joe.” AI voice-generated content has been out for a while, but it has started to get more refined, sounding closer to the actual people.
With something like this becoming more accurate, it’s an equally interesting and concerning time we’re in. On one hand, it’s funny and mostly harmless hearing some teamspeak between former presidents and a current US president bickering over Discord comms. On the other hand, it’ll be more difficult to see what’s real and not.
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Of course, this stuff doesn’t stop at the US presidents. If your “For You” Page promotes them playing games together, you may have also seen polarizing figures like Ben Shapiro, Jordan B. Peterson, and Joe Rogan in the mix. Not only can this be used eventually to stir up controversy, but it’s possible that people will start falling for this more often.
We’ve already seen some problems with AI-generated content as Bungie devs are being duped into thinking that submitted art is real. In terms of other media, this is where it becomes a problem. This kind of content skirts along a lot of copyright issues and devalues the creation process from people.
The whole concept of AI content like deep fake voices and image generators can pose a lot of problems. It only further means that people can be outsourced in areas that shouldn’t be possible.
This user’s Tik Tok caption reads “Tiktok please don’t take this down:(“. It’s a good sign that perhaps some of these have already started to be taken down. This whole AI-voice phenomenon is amusing but can be taken a tad bit too far.
Even if the technology isn’t perfected yet, it’s getting too close for comfort. Especially with large figures in politics or those with large social media followings, this can be used for our entertainment as we see on these Tik Toks, or for more malicious purposes.
