But he does it with style! And he does note that it is AI. But he’s a Republican going for a state position, not a national one, so he might be okay. It should be interesting to see whether his background helps or hurts. At a wild guess, it will help, because this is Texas. With appreciation to Raw Story:
A Texas state house candidate posted an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself for his campaign — but it didn’t get received quite the way he may have hoped. Tom Glass of McDade, running for the 17th House District, posted the picture alongside his announcement of a key endorsement, while fully admitting it to be AI-generated.
“United Republicans is proud to officially endorse Tom Glass for Texas State Representative in House District 17,” stated the post. “Tom Glass is a proven constitutional conservative, respected grassroots leader, and dedicated Republican who has spent years defending Texas values, individual liberty, and accountable government. After a successful 27-year career with ExxonMobil, Tom committed his life to public service and conservative advocacy.”
And there you see the help-or-hurt background. My knowledge of Texas is admittedly slim these days, but I seem to recall oil rigs in the state and in the Gulf of Mexico. If I’m wrong, I am. I expect I’ll get over my embarrassment sooner or later (more likely sooner, natch). Either way, his tenure there is pretty impressive on its own. 27 years is not exactly a drop in the bucket. But there’s more:
He added, “The only negative thing I have to say about this AI-generated image is that it left off my Aggie ring!” This image, however, drew swift mockery from political consultant and former Texas House chief of staff Joey Parr, who pointed out some obvious mistakes. “Nice Chilean flag, @tomgglass,” wrote Parr, indicating that the AI had mixed up the flag of Texas with the flag of Chile — both of which are red, white, and blue with a “lone star,” but otherwise laid out very differently. “And the wrong capital.” The image showed the U.S. Capitol instead of the Texas Capitol.
Chortling with glee here! Those mistakes should have been caught before broadcast. It’s not that hard to search for and find the correct flag and capital pictures. That’s really a beginner’s mistake, whether on his part or the “artist’s”. Seriously, do your due diligence to make sure everything is correct.
“You should move to DC and try there,” Parr added. “You might actually be able to fool folks into voting for you. #txlege” //// AI-generated political images have been growing common as the technology has improved, and sometimes they have served a more sinister purpose, including deepfakes of politicians getting arrested.
Yes, that would be an AI problem. If someone is that good, or just takes their time, a deepfake would be fairly simple, I would suppose. I haven’t tried to do anything with it. Feels like a party trick. Also, I can’t draw worth a damn, even to circle something in a PDF, so AI is right out. It’s going to be a serious problem as the technology advances. And that’s something to be concerned about. In the meantime, well, we can laugh at silly mistakes.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise that among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest-working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
Says a lot if he has to use AI for his ad, and bonus, screws it up. By extension, if he is successful and manages to pass muster and get in, just imagine how incompetently dependent he’ll be on needing AI to help him … err, really screw up.
At a guess, he was trying to be “cutting-edge” in terms of tech use. He needs a better artist if he’s going to keep that up. Otherwise, as you said, really screw up. That will be twice as funny, methinks.
If he can’t even run his campaign properly and cover the details, what sort of mess would he make of government – where it’s all about coping with the details?
Oh, my. I hadn’t thought that far ahead.