Whoopi Goldberg who had no time for the growing conspiracy theories on Kate Middleton ‘s supposed disappearance and dwindling health, went on to drop her own about ex-president Donald Trump on the recent episode of “The View”.
The 68-year-old ABC star who had scolded her co-hosts Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin earlier in the segment for encouraging the fake narratives surrounding the Princess of Wales, shocked viewers as she suggested, “I don’t believe Trump is actually out there. I think that’s an AI of him”, before cleverly cutting into commercials to excuse herself from having to explain herself.
The bizarre remark came at the tail end of Wednesday’s episode when Goldberg hinted at a conspiracy theory that we would ‘really like’, poking fun at South Carolina Governor Kristi Noem’s new veneers that seemed to be a paid promotion for a dental business in Texas.
As the conversation went on, co-host Joy Behar amusingly listed other politicians who could start similar ‘side hustles’ suggesting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis could sell platform shoes much like Trump’s recent foray into ‘those ridiculous sneakers’ referring to his shoe stint at Sneaker Con , in Philadelphia. Behar exclaimed, “They all have a product now! This is the United States of America.”
On the mention of Trump or perhaps recalling the DeSantis AI deepfakes attack last year , Goldberg found her opportunity to share her thoughts on some of Trump’s public appearances, “I think a lot of that has been AI…That’s just my opinion, but that’s what I think.” While Goldberg’s playful winking at the viewers at the end, suggests she might have been just indulging the conspiracy tangent of her co-hosts from earlier in the segment, she’s not alone in her musings.
Trump shared similar claims on Truth Social that his cognitive slip-ups in the Democratic video compilation were doctored using AI, “Artificial Intelligence was used by them against me in their videos of me. Can’t do that Joe!”
Despite the implausibility of Trump’s outlandish claims, Goldberg’s provocative theory further perpetuates the ongoing skepticism towards authority and authenticity in politics in an AI-driven world. And given Trump’s propensity for lying, it isn’t surprising that he would be quick to take advantage of the benefit of the doubt allotted to politicians today. Goldberg on the other hand, is known to be outspoken about her views on artificial intelligence , and from the looks of it, more such revelations are yet to come!
But, as citizens, we may find some relief as executives from Tech companies like Adobe, Amazon, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, TikTok, and X among others, gathered at Munich recently to sign an accord to combat such AI-generated election trickery.
Additionally, popular AI image-generators such as Midjourney have taken a tougher stance, actively blocking users to prevent the circulation of fake images of election frontrunners ahead of the upcoming US presidential election. This means while Trump may end up being the President again, he very well cannot hide behind the cover of AI for long.
SOUTH DAKOTA GOV. NOEM PLUGS DENTAL GROUP: After the governor was slammed for promoting a Texas business in an infomercial-style video, #TheView co-hosts weigh in. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/eKg1vN3Nq1
— The View (@TheView) March 13, 2024