DeSantis PAC uses AI-generated Trump voice in ad attacking ex-president

A pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC uses an Artificial Intelligence version of Donald Trump’s voice in a new television ad attacking the former president.

The ad, from Never Back Down, charges Trump with attacking Iowa governor Kim Reynolds as part of a larger pattern of disrespect he has shown to the first caucus state.

But the audio that the spot uses is not actually from Trump. A person familiar with the ad confirmed Trump’s voice was AI generated. Its content appears to be based off of a post that Trump made on his social media site Truth Social last week. The person said it will run statewide in Iowa tomorrow and that the ad buy was at least $1 million — a massive sum though one doable for the well-heeled super PAC.

Political ads have used impersonation before, and the Trump-generated voice in the Never Back Down ad does not sound entirely natural. Still, the spot highlights what could be the next frontier of campaign advertising: The use of AI-generated content to produce increasingly difficult to identify, so-called deepfakes.

“The blatant use of AI to fabricate President Trump’s voice is a desperate attempt by Always Back Down and Jeff Roe to deceive the American public because they know DeSanctimonious’ campaign is on life support,” said Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita, referring to a top official with the pro-DeSantis super PAC. “After losing big donors and slashing their staff, they have now outsourced their work to AI just like they would like to outsource American jobs to China.”

Never Back Down had previously used AI to superimpose a fighter jet into a pro-DeSantis ad.