Never Back Down Super PAC for Ron DeSantis Uses AI Donald Trump Voice in Attack Ad Against Kim Reynolds

A pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC released an ad featuring an AI-generated voice of Donald Trump. The ad, created by Never Back Down, aimed to criticize Trump’s treatment of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. The AI-generated voice was confirmed to be based on Trump's post from his social media. This incident is an example of potential deception in political advertising through AI-generated content.

Risk classification

• Primary risk domain: 4 Malicious actors
• Primary risk subdomain: 4.1 Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale

The incident involved using an AI voice clone to conduct a large-scale political campaign ad aimed at manipulating public opinion and the political process.

Additional risk subdomains

• 3.1 False or misleading information: The AI tool was used to generate a fabricated voice recording of Donald Trump, creating false and misleading audio content.

Causal factors

• Entity: Human
• Intent: Intentional
• Timing: Post-deployment

The incident was caused by humans (the super PAC) intentionally using a deployed AI voice generation tool to create a deceptive political ad.

EU AI Act risk tier

• Risk tier: 3 Limited Risk

Limited Risk: The incident involves AI-generated content (a deepfake voice clone), which falls under the category of systems requiring transparency obligations so users know the content is synthetic.

AI system and alleged parties

• AI system: unspecified
• AI purpose: Voice Generation; Text Style Replication
• Behaviour type: Tool
• Alleged developer: Never Back Down
• Alleged deployer: Ron DeSantis's presidential campaign, Never Back Down
• Alleged harmed parties: Kim Reynolds, Donald Trump

Harm severity

Severity ratings are based on this scale.

Highest direct severity in any category: Minor. Severity is scored from Negligible to Catastrophic in each harm category, for harm the reports describe as caused directly or indirectly by the AI system.

• Physical: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Infrastructure: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Property: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Financial: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Environmental: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Malicious content: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Differential treatment: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Civil rights: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Democracy: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Privacy: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Psychological: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible
• Epistemic: direct Minor, indirect Negligible
• Child sexual exploitation and abuse: direct Negligible, indirect Negligible

Malicious content

Reported: The report explicitly describes the creation of a deceptive political ad using a fabricated voice.

Directly caused: The super PAC created a television ad featuring a fabricated AI-generated voice of Donald Trump to attack his campaign.

Democracy

Reported: The report explicitly describes the potential erosion of democratic norms through the use of AI-generated deepfakes in political campaigns.

Directly caused: The ad used a fabricated voice of a presidential candidate to deceive voters in Iowa, representing a new frontier of campaign deception.

Inferred additional harm: The widespread use of such deepfakes in elections could erode trust in political campaigns and democratic processes.

Epistemic

Reported: The report explicitly describes epistemic harm through the fabrication of Donald Trump's voice to make it sound like he spoke words aloud.

Directly caused: The AI system generated a voice clone of Donald Trump reading a social media post, creating a false impression that he spoke those words verbally.

Inferred additional harm: The proliferation of voice clones in politics makes it harder for the public to distinguish real audio from synthetic fabrications, eroding shared truth.

People affected

• Occurrences reported: 1
• People reportedly harmed: 1
• People reportedly exposed: 1

Potential causes

Management

• Prioritizing Impact over Ethics: PAC management authorized a controversial AI ad to gain campaign traction.
• Aggressive Campaign Spending: Management funded a 1 million dollar ad buy to maximize deepfake outreach.

Technology

• AI Voice Generation Technology: Generative AI allowed synthetic replication of Trump's voice.
• Unnatural Audio Synthesis: The AI voice did not sound completely natural but was highly realistic.

Data Inputs

• Social Media Post Text: Trump's actual Truth Social post was used as the input text for voice model.

Human Factors

• Intent to Deceive Voters: Campaign staff intentionally used synthetic voice to influence voters.

Process and Methods

• Outsourcing Work to AI: Super PAC adopted AI tools to generate ad content quickly and cheaply.
• Lack of Pre-broadcast Verification: No internal checks prevented the broadcast of synthetic voice ads.

Regulatory Environment

• Absence of Political AI Regulations: No legal frameworks prohibited using deepfakes in campaign advertisements.

Information quality

• Classification confidence: High
• Reason for confidence: The report clearly describes the event, the parties involved, the medium (TV ad), and the fact that the voice was AI-generated. There is little ambiguity about what transpired, though the specific AI tool used is not named.
• Ambiguities identified: The specific AI voice generation software or developer is not identified in the report.
• Alternative interpretations: None. The super PAC confirmed the voice was AI-generated.

A domestic political action committee used an AI-generated voice clone of Donald Trump in a high-profile, statewide television advertisement in Iowa. While the incident did not involve foreign interference or critical infrastructure compromise, it represents a significant evolution in the scale and deployment of synthetic media to influence democratic processes and political campaigns.

• Overall national security impact: Minor
• Scope: Single nation
• Primary target: United States
• Alleged perpetrator: Never Back Down super PAC

Threat characteristics

• Imminence: Long-term. Represents an ongoing capability and strategic concern regarding election integrity rather than an immediate national security crisis.
• Autonomy: Human-controlled. The AI tool was directly operated and controlled by human actors to generate specific audio content.
• Novelty: Evolved capability. Voice cloning is an established technology, but its deployment at scale in a major presidential campaign TV advertisement represents a significant evolution.

Impact by dimension

• Physical security: Negligible. No physical systems, critical infrastructure, or human safety elements were affected by this incident.
• Information security: Minor. Involves a synthetic media deepfake targeting a major political figure, representing an evolved capability in domestic political influence, though not a foreign intelligence operation.
• Sovereignty: Minor. No disruption to core government operations, borders, or electoral infrastructure, though it represents a novel tool in domestic political campaigns.
• Economic security: Negligible. No strategic technology theft, financial system disruption, or economic warfare was reported.
• Societal stability: Minor. Erosion of epistemic trust and potential manipulation of voters at scale, but did not cause civil unrest or systemic human rights abuses.