DeSantis PAC uses AI-generated Trump voice in Iowa attack ad

A super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president is launching a new television ad on Tuesday using an Artificial Intelligence-generated version of Donald Trump’s voice criticizing popular Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. 

The Never Back Down PAC ad features an AI version of Trump's voice reading a post he made on Truth Social last week attacking Reynolds.

"I opened up the Governor position for Kim Reynolds, & when she fell behind, I ENDORSED her, did big Rallies, & she won. Now, she wants to remain 'NEUTRAL.' I don’t invite her to events!" Trump wrote in the post that was read by an AI-generated version of his voice.

A person familiar with the matter told Politico that it is running statewide in Iowa starting Tuesday and that the ad buy was at least $1 million. 

"The blatant use of AI to fabricate President Trump’s voice is a desperate attempt by Always Back Down and Jeff Roe to deceive the American public because they know DeSanctimonious’ campaign is on life support," senior Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita said, criticizing top DeSantis PAC official Jeff Roe. 

"After losing big donors and slashing their staff, they have now outsourced their work to AI just like they would like to outsource American jobs to China," LaCivita also told the outlet just days after DeSantis cut his 2024 presidential campaign staff by roughly 10%.

The ad comes as Trump is far ahead of DeSantis in hypothetical 2024 primary polls, including in Iowa, which is where the first presidential caucuses are expected to be held.

Never Back Down has used AI before to place a fighter jet in a pro-DeSantis ad. While political advertisements have used impersonation, the next frontier of campaigns could be using AI-generated content to produce so-called "deepfakes," or difficult-to-identify fabricated content.

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.