One Nation's racist AI video

One Nation released an AI-generated campaign video at its Victorian launch over the weekend. It depicts racist stereotypes including an African man with a machete and a Middle Eastern man with an explosive vest.

The video's other offensive content

The video also shows a South Asian man in a turban discussing mass migration and an Indigenous elder talking about people receiving money on the basis of need, not identity.

Coverage focused elsewhere

Most media reporting focused on Pauline Hanson's reception from supporters and candidate Mark Nicholson's pledge to jail Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan, barely mentioning the inflammatory video.

The video copies Netanyahu's playbook

The video's opening scene of a young man coming out as conservative to his leftwing family copies a similar Israeli campaign video from Benjamin Netanyahu, according to progressive group GetUp.

Authorities have no power to act

The Australian Communications and Media Authority cannot take action because its powers do not extend to online-only content. Electoral commissions only regulate misinformation about the electoral process itself.

Government has resisted calls to ban deepfakes

The federal Labor government has shrugged off growing calls from inside and outside parliament to ban AI-generated content during election periods, despite working on AI-related legislation this year.

Senator Pocock's two-year push

Senator David Pocock has been pushing for two years for the government to address generative AI in election campaigns. Thirty-five thousand people signed his online petition calling for Labor to legislate a ban on deepfakes before the next federal election.

Electoral integrity at risk

The Australian Electoral Commission told parliament's joint committee on AI that deepfakes make it harder to distinguish authentic from manipulated content and may compromise the actual or perceived integrity of an election.

“Inauthentic content or deepfakes circulating during the voting period, for instance, may well compromise the actual or perceived integrity of an election.”

AI slop spreading across politics

This week alone, conservative group Advance released its own Victorian AI ad, Liberal MP Jason Wood posted a fake image of Anthony Albanese, and AAP debunked AI-generated political interview videos purportedly shot outside Parliament House.

Expert warns of erosion of trust

Professor Terry Flew of the Centre for AI Trust and Governance told the inquiry that AI-generated misinformation will erode public trust in institutions and degrade the information ecosystem, recommending government prohibit deepfakes during elections.

“There are real risks that AI-generated misinformation, as well as what has come to be known as 'AI slop', will further erode public trust in institutions and degrade the wider information ecosystem.”

AI lowers the barrier to inflammatory content

AI makes it cheaper and easier to produce inflammatory campaign videos. Normally it would be harder and more expensive to hire a film crew and actors willing to act out such rhetoric.