Darrell West Discusses “Lies That Kill," Future of AI and Harris’ Momentum
Darrell West Discusses “Lies That Kill," Future of AI and Harris’ Momentum
“The book is about disinformation, and in this election campaign, we already are seeing a bunch of fake pictures, fake videos," said West, who serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Technology Innovation and the Douglas Dillon Chair in Governmental Studies at Brookings in Washington, DC.
"I've seen images of Kamala Harris in a swimming suit hugging convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which, of course, never took place. Democrats have spread rumors that J.D Vance had sex with his couch early in his life, which did not happen, so you just look, it's all over the place. There are blatant lies,” said West.
“I think everybody's expecting this to be a close race. My personal fear is that the last three or four percent that will decide this election may end up making up their minds based on disinformation,” said West.
West, a co-editor-in-chief of TechTank, warns that it is ever more difficult for the public to decipher the fake from the real.
“It's not easy because the fake stuff actually looks incredibly real. I mean, I've seen pictures and even videos that look completely authentic, but they're made by AI and completely manufactured and oftentimes completely inaccurate, so it's a big challenge for consumers,” said West.
Also, West worries that companies like Twitter/X and YouTube have fewer protections in place to identify and remove false information than they did in 2020.
Trump v. Harris
Regarding the Presidential race, West identifies that Harris has tremendous momentum now.
“Joe Biden's exit from the race and Kamal Harris's emergence as the Democratic nominee has completely transformed [the race.] She's come up in the polls. She's raised over half a billion dollars basically in a five to six-week time period, which is extraordinary. She's getting generally positive media coverage,” said West.
“She's basically positioned herself as the new person, the change agent, and kind of running against Trump as a retread, a guy who just relies on personal insults, and you know it used to be his carnival act — it was entertaining people and propelled him to the presidency. People aren't as amused by that anymore,” added West.
Prior to joining Brookings, West was the John Hazen White Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University.