The AI Taylor Swift endorsement Trump shared was initially a pro-Biden Fb meme

The substitute intelligence-generated picture of Taylor Swift endorsing Donald Trump, which the singer mentioned impressed her to endorse Kamala Harris for president this week, got here from an unlikely place. 

The picture, which precipitated controversy in August after being shared by the previous president on Truth Social, initially circulated with textual content studying, “Taylor needs you to vote for Joe Biden,” and was posted in a pro-Biden Fb group with simply 8,000 members in December 2023. That put up was seen by NBC Information. A reverse-image search carried out by NBC Information didn’t discover any earlier incidences of the picture being posted on-line.  

After the pro-Biden picture that includes the AI-generated Swift was first posted on Fb, it started to journey across the pro-Biden web, notably amongst Gen X and child boomer supporters of the then-candidate. The Fb group it was initially posted in is essentially a spot for Democrats to share memes and knowledge in help of Biden and towards Trump. 

The picture additionally traveled to X and Instagram’s messaging platform, Threads. S. E. Hinton, writer of “The Outsiders,” shared it on X in December. It was posted in a liberal subreddit the identical month.

“I’m a Boomer for Biden,” one X post of the picture was captioned in January. 

The picture’s creator, a Democrat, requested NBC Information to maintain his id personal, desirous to keep away from backlash. Impressed by Swift’s 2020 endorsement of Biden, he mentioned he used a generative AI platform to create a picture from the textual content immediate “Taylor Swift as Uncle Sam,” then used Photoshop so as to add textual content over it.

On Aug. 17, round 9 months after it was posted with the pro-Biden textual content, a pro-Trump X account with over 340,000 followers posted an edited model that learn, “Taylor needs you to vote for Donald Trump.” The X account didn’t reply to a request for remark about whether or not it edited the picture itself or the place it got here from. The following day, Trump posted a screenshot of the X put up on his Fact Social account with the caption, “I settle for!”

“I awoke one morning and I bought a textual content message from anyone who despatched me an image of the altered model and mentioned, ‘Was this you?’ I used to be like, ‘Yeah that’s an altered model of my authentic,’” the one who created the AI picture of Swift endorsing Biden informed NBC Information in a telephone interview. “I didn’t assume a lot of it till I sat down and began wanting on the information. It began blowing up from there, with individuals saying Taylor may sue him and I believed, ‘Holy crap, what did I do?’”

On Tuesday, after the presidential debate between Trump and Harris, Swift posted an endorsement for Harris on Instagram. Within the caption, she cited the AI-generated picture Trump posted as one of many the reason why she wished to make her stance recognized publicly. 

“Just lately I used to be made conscious that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his website. It actually conjured up my fears round AI, and the hazards of spreading misinformation,” Swift wrote. “It introduced me to the conclusion that I should be very clear about my precise plans for this election as a voter. The best solution to fight misinformation is with the reality.”

Swift included a hyperlink to the official voter registration web site within the Instagram Story saying her endorsement. Within the 24 hours that adopted, more than 400,000 individuals clicked the hyperlink from her account.

“I agree with Taylor that AI, when utilized by dangerous actors, generally is a hazard to democracy,” the AI picture creator mentioned. “If this results in stronger regulation, I’m not solely completely satisfied to conform, however I’ll be completely satisfied that it makes the world a safer place.”

The AI picture creator, an artist, mentioned he initially began experimenting with AI to remain in line with technological development he perceived as a risk to his profession. He mentioned he realized it could possibly be a helpful solution to create political satire. 

His public Fb group is the place he posts content material in help of Democrats, beginning with Biden’s presidential marketing campaign in 2020 and now in help of Harris’ presidential marketing campaign. 

“I didn’t assume it could go down this manner,” he mentioned. “The intent of it was to spice up help for Joe Biden as a result of his communication was poor and his polls have been low and Trump was a looming risk and I simply couldn’t stand idly by.”