Attack ad uses AI-generated voices of Nikki Haley and Tim Scott to claim they’re ‘too woke’
An AI-generated radio ad recreates the voices of Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Tim Scott — to pummel them as too liberal and “woke” to win the GOP nomination.
The narrator of the 60-second spot — bankrolled by the Courageous Conservatives Super PAC and running in red-leaning markets in Iowa and South Carolina — opens with, “It’s time to play `Who’s more woke, with Nikki Haley and Tim Scott.”
The narrator asks the “candidates” to answer a series of questions to determine “who’s more woke” and also requests that listeners vote in an X, formerly known as Twitter, poll.
“Who supported defunding local police?” the narrator says.
The “Celebrity Voices AI”-generated voice of Scott replies, “That’s me, Tim Scott.
“My Justice Act defunded the police,” the Scott character says.
The narrator asks, “Who demolished the Confederate Memorial” in Columbia, SC, the state capital.
“Me! Nikki Haley,” responds the former South Carolina governor’s AI-voice.
Courageous Conservatives founder Chris Ekstrom told The Post, “We wanted to be creative.
“We wanted to be amusing and use AI voices. Haley and Scott are both too woke to be the Republican nominee,” Ekstrom said.
Scott appeared on ABC’s “This Week” program June 20 and was asked about a story in The Root, a left-leaning black publication.
The story had described the South Carolina senator’s proposed Justice Act as a form of defunding the police because it blocked police departments from receiving funding if they failed to comply with reforms involving chokeholds, no-knock warrants and training.
“God bless ‘The Root,’ ” Scott told ABC’s “This Week” program at the time. “It’s nice to have them on my side every blue moon. I’m not sure I would go with their conclusions. But, yes, it is important for us to use the resources that we provide to law enforcement, and a way to get them, to compel them, towards the direction that we think is in the best interest of the nation, the communities that, they, they serve and frankly of the officers themselves.
Jon Karl, the show’s host, followed up by asking, “And I guess their point is if the, if the – police departments don’t do what you are asking, they will lose access to federal funds. So, so there would be an element of withholding funding here?”
Scott replied, “Yes. “Very, very important aspect of our bill.”
As for Haley, after the 2015 mass shooting that killed nine black churchgoers at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, she approved as the then-governor a law removing the confederate flag from the grounds of the state capitol, which many view as a racist symbol of slavery and white supremacy.
In the new ad, the narrator also asks who “kept a strong conservative” off the federal bench. Scott had blocked Thomas Farr, an appointee of former President Donald Trump for allegedly disenfranchising black voters.
“That’s me, Tim Scott!” replies the AI-generated voice of the GOP contender.
The narrator also asks who fell for the “Bubba Wallace noose hoax” — a reference to the incident involving the black NASCAR driver.
“Nikki Haley, of course,” her AI-Haley voice said.
An FBI probe concluded the noose knot had been in the garage stall well before Wallace’s team came in and that the noose did not intentionally target Wallace and therefore was not a racist act.
Haley, the first US ambassador to the UN under Trump, tweeted at the time, “We should all stand with @BubbaWallace today against the cowards who secretly put the noose in his garage stall. Watch your back cowards. Bubba has a bigger army than you do. #HateWontWin #WeStandWithBubba.”
Ekstrom said his group has spent $35,000 on ads in Iowa and South Carolina thus far and expects to market the ad in Nevada, an early voting state for the GOP nomination. He also expects to extend the ad in South Carolina, another early voting state in February 2024, where locals Haley and Scott would have to perform well to move on in the GOP primary.
His Courageous Conservatives PAC was an early backer of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for president in 2016.
The group is not backing a particular candidate at this point, but it gives away its sympathies by including a photo of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on its X account.
The group’s ad is not the first AI advertisement to hit the 2024 presidential race.
In July, a pro-Ron DeSantis super PAC used an AI version of Trump’s voice in a new TV ad slamming the former president.
The ad, paid for by Never Back Down, charged Trump with attacking Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and disrespecting the first caucus state.
The Haley and Scott campaigns had no immediate comment on the ad involving them.
