President Joe Biden announced he was officially running for re-election on Tuesday. And Republicans had an attack ad ready for the occasion. The ad knocks Biden for his culpability in various domestic and foreign policy-related events, with startling visuals for each.Â
One thing viewers should know: The images in the video are AI-generated.
The video from the Republican National Committee is titled “Beat Biden” and imagines a scenario in which Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris win reelection in 2024. The ad shows completely AI-generated images of Biden and Harris celebrating their election day victory.
It then depicts a number of imagined events with AI-created visuals ostensibly brought about by Biden’s electoral victory, such as China invading Taiwan, hundreds of regional banks shutting down in the U.S., and the city of San Francisco being shut down due to crime.
Republicans aren’t hiding that the video was assembled entirely from images created by AI platforms like Midjourney and DALL-E. “An AI-generated look into the country’s possible future if Joe Biden is re-elected in 2024,” the video description reads on the GOP’s YouTube page. This is seemingly the first time a political ad has been created entirely with AI-generated imagery.
All this flashy AI usage seemingly sidesteps the need to criticize the actual policies of the Biden administration. The Republican critique is instead on events that exist entirely in party members’ own imaginations.
