CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan Shows RNC Fake Anti-Biden AI Ad To Tourists Outside White House To See If They Can Tell

CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan showed passersby the RNC’s controversial anti-Biden ad  — which shows fake catastrophes generated by Artificial Intelligence — right in front of the White House to see if they could distinguish the fakes.

Last week, the Republican National Committee released an ad that asked viewers to imagine a second term for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris that simulated a raft of catastrophes using A.I. and newsy-sounding narration:

DISEMBODIED NEWS-STYLE NARRATOR: This just in. We can now call the 2024 presidential race for Joe Biden.

DISEMBODIED NEWS-STYLE NARRATOR: This morning an emboldened China invades Taiwan.

DISEMBODIED NEWS-STYLE NARRATOR 2: Financial markets are in freefall as 500 regional banks have shuttered their doors.

DISEMBODIED NEWS-STYLE NARRATOR3: Border agents were overrun by a surge of 80,000 illegals yesterday evening.

DISEMBODIED NEWS-STYLE NARRATOR 2: Officials closed the city of San Francisco this morning, citing the escalating crime and fentanyl crisis.

DISEMBODIED NEWS-STYLE NARRATOR: Who’s in charge here?

DISEMBODIED NEWS-STYLE NARRATOR3: It feels like the train is coming off the tracks.

The ad has generated controversy, and on Tuesday night’s edition of CNN’s OutFront, O’Sullivan stunned host Erica Hill with a package during which he showed the ad to people in Washington, DC who said they had trouble distinguishing the fakes from reality:

DONIE O’SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You might have seen this already, I want you to watch this. It’s a political ad.

POLITICAL AD: Officials closed the city of San Francisco this morning, citing the escalating crime in fentanyl crisis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That did even have San Francisco, even like, get shut down? Okay, I was like —

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That’s right.

O’SULLIVAN: A recent ad from the Republican National Committee imagines a dystopian future if President Biden is reelected.

POLITICAL AD: An emboldened China invades Taiwan.

O’SULLIVAN: But all isn’t as it seems.

All the images in that ad recreated using A.I., artificial intelligence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my goodness.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.

…

O’SULLIVAN: There is a tiny disclaimer at the top that says it’s made with A.I.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I’m blind.

O’SULLIVAN: While some people we showed the ad to outside the White House knew it was fake.

All of the images are fake.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would be believe it.

O’SULLIVAN: Others weren’t so confident.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don’t think I would’ve known that was made with A.I., if you hadn’t said anything.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: It’s so — every time I see you, I say it’s so scary, but what’s interesting, too, is I know you’ve learned how A.I. is actually helping campaign in terms of reaching voters, is that safe?

O’SULLIVAN: Well, it’s scary. Yeah, so we spoke this week to a data CEO who runs a company that targets voters. Look, on every voter, a lot of campaigns have hundreds, sometimes thousands of data points about us, where we live, our demographics, how we vote, things like that, who we’ve donated for. He was explaining how A.I. modeled symptoms can be used to go through all that data and see patterns that humans would not be able to.

Watch above via CNN’s OutFront.