The Department of Justice is claiming that it cannot release audio from President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur out of fear of potential deep fakes.
The department presented the excuse in a Friday court filing responding to a legal challenge against Biden’s attempt to use executive privilege to keep the recording from the public.
In its filing, the DOJ claimed that releasing the true recording of the interview would make it harder to disprove any AI deepfakes of the interview even though the department acknowledged that there were enough public audio resources available to the public to create any AI deepfakes.
DOJ claims it can't release Biden-Hur interview due to threat of AI deepfakes https://t.co/Y63R9hZmv1
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“The passage of time and advancements in audio, artificial intelligence, and ‘deep fake’ technologies only amplify concerns about malicious manipulation of audio files. If the audio recording is released here, it is easy to foresee that it could be improperly altered, and that the altered file could be passed off as an authentic recording and widely distributed,” the DOJ wrote.
According to Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer, releasing the tape to the public would “make it far more likely that malicious actors could pass off a deepfake as the authentic recording.”
The issue at hand is an interview Biden had with Hur, in which he was questioned about his handling of classified documents. Hur’s report, released earlier this year based on that interview, revealed that prosecutors determined that Biden is a confused but well-meaning elderly man.
Several instances were presented in the report of Biden failing to recall basic details about his life including the year of his son Beau Biden’s death and when he served as vice president.
While the DOJ already released a transcript of the interview, there have been efforts from conservative legal groups and House Republicans to get the department to release the audio amid reports that Biden exerted his executive privilege to keep the recording from the public.
There have been speculations that the transcript of the interview that was released may have been edited to save the president from embarrassment and that the audio would provide a more accurate insight into the meeting between Biden and Hur.
“President Biden is apparently afraid for the citizens of this country and everyone to hear those tapes. They obviously confirm what the special counsel has found, and would likely cause, I suppose, in his estimation, such alarm with the American people that the president is using all of his power to suppress their release,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said of Biden’s attempt to keep the recording under wraps.