A video released by the National Republican Senatorial Committee shows an AI-generated version of Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer repeatedly saying, “Every day gets better for us,” and grinning.
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A new attack ad from Senate Republicans uses Sen. Chuck Schumer's real words about shutting down the government, but is an AI spoof of the Democratic Senate Minority Leader.
30 second video Published Friday on X and YouTube by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the campaign raised alarm among many observers who warned it had crossed a new political frontier and could unleash a torrent of deepfake ad attacks generated by artificial intelligence.
Under X's caption, “Schumer's third week of shutdown: 'Every day gets better for us,'” the video shows an AI-generated version of Schumer repeatedly saying those words and grinning. The video ends with Schumer smiling as the narrator says, “Schumer's shutdown is making things worse across America, and the Democrats love it.”
“Every day gets better for us,” was part of Schumer’s quote to a political website. Punchbowl News in an October 9 article about the shutdown. He continued: “That's because we thought about it long before that, and we knew that health care would be the focus on September 30th, and we prepared for that… Their whole theory was to threaten us, deceive us, and we'll comply in a day or two.”
However, the original story only included the text of Schumer's statement, not video or audio.
NRSK press release In announcing the ad, it describes it as a “visualization” of Schumer's comments and says it is “created in part using artificial intelligence software and includes an AI disclaimer.”
Schumer's fake footage includes a small clear watermark of the NRSC logo and the words “CREATED BY AI” in the lower right corner. On YouTube video contains additional “Modified or Synthetic Content” label saying, “Sound or visual effects have been significantly edited or digitally created.”
“These are Chuck Schumer's own words,” NRSC communications director Joanna Rodriguez said in an email to NPR. “We know Schumer wishes people didn't know he said it, but he did, and this video is a way for voters to see and hear how proud he is of his closure.”
Schumer's office did not respond to a request for comment.
Even though the quote actually came from Schumer, using artificial intelligence to create fake videos is crossing the line, says Hani Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies manipulated media.
“If they wanted to use a quote, they could show a picture of Schumer and overlay the quote, as is often done. It cannot reasonably be argued that creating a deepfake of Senator Schumer is the same thing,” he said.
Additionally, Fareed said the disclaimer in the bottom right corner of the video “is not a particularly clear or obvious disclosure, especially when most users are doomed to scroll through their social media posts.”
The NRSC video has also been criticized by journalists and other commentators on social media, including reporters from right-wing publications.
“The Schumer snippet is the AI-generated video shown in the lower right corner, but we are on the cusp of a terrifying new world,” John Levin, political reporter for the Washington Free Beacon, wrote on X.
“The NRSC is increasingly relying on artificial intelligence in its advertising, but this is the first time I've seen them go so far as to use it to fake an opponent's video. It's a slippery slope, even with the tiny AI disclosure in the corner.” – Ramsey Touchberry, Washington Examiner congressional reporter published on X.
Amid criticism, NRSC's Rodriguez wrote on his own X account: “AI is here and isn’t going anywhere. Adapt and win or pearl clutch and lose.”
This isn't the first time Republicans have used AI to impersonate Schumer and other Democrats. On the eve of quarantine, President Trump published in Truth Social an apparently AI-generated, profanity-laced video of Schumer saying, “Nobody likes Democrats anymore.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is also seen in the video wearing a cartoonish sombrero and mustache.
But unlike the NRSC video of Schumer, earlier examples were easy to spot because unreliable.
Farid warned that the growing prevalence Artificial Intelligence in Politics may have a corrosive effect.
“While I don’t think our leaders should publish misleading deepfakes, they also run the risk that when they publish real content, the public will have good reason to doubt its authenticity,” he said.
