A Quick Note on Dean Preston and Fake News
The District 5 Supervisor is concerned about AI and fake news and wants to learn more about controlling it. But he's also been a beneficiary of the phenomenon
[This story has been updated: According to Supervisor Preston’s office staff, the hearing has been postponed until sometime in May due to scheduling issues.]
Today’s Examiner reports that District 6 Supervisor and Government Audit and Oversight Committee Chair Dean Preston’s long-awaited hearing on the impact of artificial intelligence on local elections and how to regulate it has finally been scheduled for April 22 at the Rules Committee. Preston announced the hearing last Dec. 12, and the request was formally introduced on Jan. 9.
In a five-minute speech during roll call for introductions Dec. 12, Preston said “we are already seeing how artificial intelligence is being used to generate images and videos in political ads nationally and in other cities, creating new avenues for misleading content without adequate guardrails. AI technology is making it increasingly difficult for the public to accurately identify fraudulent video and audio materials.”
“So, I believe we need a plan to prevent the use of fraudulent AI-generated content in campaign ads to the greatest extent allowable under law,” he added.
The problem is that Preston himself has benefited politically in the recent past from deniable fake news that at least peripherally used a form of AI.
In June of 2022, Josh Koehn of the San Francisco Standard called attention to a fake news site, the “San Francisco Independent Journal,” created by the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter [Preston is a self-described Democratic Socialist]. It seemed to copy the online format of the very real Marin Independent Journal, and its active life span coincided with Preston’s run for re-election. The SFIJ featured glowing coverage of Preston, written by writers under fake names, with fake profiles complete with GAN-generated phony profile pictures.
In his Dec. 12 roll call speech Preston mainly called attention to recent AI-generated attack ads in state and national election campaigns, but he also highlighted New York Mayor Eric Adams’ use of an AI tool to make service outreach robocalls in different languages, but using his voice, which is arguably a lesser [or at least more subtle] form of political self-dealing.