Report 6153

SACRAMENTO --- On a sunny day earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom stood shoulder-to-shoulder with tech leaders at Google's San Francisco campus overlooking the Bay Bridge and touted the transformative powers of artificial intelligence.

AI, Newsom said, is key to California's economy and has the potential to advance humankind.

"We're here in that spirit of acceleration, of evolution, of innovation, the entrepreneurial spirit that defines the best of the San Francisco Bay Area," Newsom said at the event announcing agreements with Google and other tech companies to provide free AI tools to California schools. "No other state is doing more ... to actually showcase in real time how generative AI can solve real problems."

Those comments are typical of his rhetoric about the technology since it exploded in popularity after ChatGPT launched in late 2022. At the Google event, Newsom touted his administration's efforts to use AI to make roads safer, reduce traffic and improve call center performance. 

But over the same month, his office's most public use of generative AI tools has been much less dignified.

In the weeks since the event at Google, his official press office has posted a fake Time magazine cover featuring the governor wearing a crown, a comically buff image of Newsom in a tank top holding an American flag and a series of faux playing cards mocking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The posts are part of a broader social media strategy by his office to mock President Donald Trump and Republicans using the same style of juvenile memes long embraced by the political right. They also illustrate a broader trend with AI --- which is often discussed by industry leaders and politicians in terms of its profound potential impact on humanity, but in everyday life is easiest to find in the form of low-quality images derisively termed "AI slop."

Newsom's posts are an obvious mimicry of Trump, who has posted a litany of AI-generated images. Some of the president's posts are simply ridiculous, such as an image he posted in May of himself dressed as the Pope, while others are more sinister, like a fake video of former President Barack Obama being arrested.

At a news conference earlier this month, Newsom defended the posts by his office, and said he hopes they draw attention to the president's antics on social media.

"I hope it's a wake-up call to the president of the United States," Newsom said. "I'm following his example. If you've got issues with what I'm putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns about what he's putting out as president"

AI-generated images of Newsom as an action hero fighting Trump have proliferated on social media for weeks now since the governor's public feud with the president has intensified. Many are being generated by members of the public, while others are posted or promoted directly by his office. The images are often absurd. Many of the memes circulating online show Newsom riding various creatures, like sharks and dinosaurs. Others depict him as a superhero.

They are also very popular. His office's post of the fake Time cover racked up 5.6 million views on the social media website X. Another AI-generated image, of musician and Trump supporter Kid Rock urging people to support Newsom, garnered more than 12 million likes. Another image, featuring popular conservatives Tucker Carlson, Hulk Hogan --- depicted as a somber angel --- and Kid Rock praying over Newsom, has more than 10 million.

When he saw that one, Hany Farid said he laughed out loud.

"The one that really got me," said Farid, a professor of electrical engineering at UC Berkeley who researches AI-generated deepfakes. "It was so perfect."

The memes are funny and seem to be effective political messaging, Farid said. He thinks they should probably be labeled as AI-generated, even when it's obvious, but said that's more of a quibble he has with the governor's office's use of the images. He has a broader concern about the use of generative AI for political purposes in general, he said.

"There is a question here: Do you want to be opening up those gates to deepfakes in politics?" he said.

Newsom has endorsed some regulation of AI-generated political content, particularly related to deepfakes, or computer-generated images and videos that appear real. Last year, he signed legislation to require that large social media sites label or remove election-related deepfakes, ban unlabeled deepfakes of candidates 120 days before an election and require disclosures when political advertising is generated using AI. Some of those laws have since been put on hold or struck down by courts.

At the time, Newsom said misleading deepfake ads purporting to show Vice President Kamala Harris on X prompted him to sign the legislation.

Newsom has endorsed a very targeted approach to regulating artificial intelligence, approving bills with a more "surgical" focus and vetoing more sweeping efforts.

Newsom often touts the booming AI industry as a sign of California's healthy business climate. The tech sector writ large has long been a cornerstone of the state's economy, and growing interest in artificial intelligence has bolstered that segment of the industry, even as other parts have contracted.

The governor's background in San Francisco and deep ties to the industry have made him a longtime proponent of using technology to make government more efficient. He wrote an entire book on the subject while he served as lieutenant governor, but as governor he's had trouble making that vision a reality. During the pandemic, some state agencies were plagued by high-profile technical problems, most notably the Employment Development Department, where outdated software proved unable to handle the massive increase in unemployment claims.

In the rise of artificial intelligence, Newsom has seen new promise. He signed executive orders to integrate the new technology into state government, including initiatives to improve traffic, road safety and call center performance. Those efforts are largely behind the scenes. And in the meantime, he's continued to post AI-generated content on his public social platforms. On Monday, his office posted an AI-generated image of Trump dressed as a communist dictator, an echo of one of the AI-generated images of Harris that Newsom said prompted him to sign the deepfakes bill.

"If I were Newsom, would I be proud of this? No," Farid said of the memes. "Do I think it's practical and effective? Yes. Those things can coexist."