--- title: "Bizarre AI Deepfake Answer Questions on Behalf of Presidential Candidate" description: "A SuperPAC backing \"Bitcoin Mayor\" Francis Suarez's 2024 presidential bid just released \"Ask AI Suarez,\" an AI-powered Q&A avatar." date: "2023-07-08" modified: "2023-07-08" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/presidential-campaign-ai-deepfake" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "2024 election" - "ai" - "political ai" - "the digest" --- # Bizarre AI Deepfake Answer Questions on Behalf of Presidential Candidate ![A SuperPAC backing "Bitcoin Mayor" Francis Suarez's 2024 presidential bid just released "Ask AI Suarez," an AI-powered Q&A avatar.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Ask AI Suarez With AI in the mix, the 2024 presidential race keeps getting weirder. SOS America PAC, a Super PAC backing "[Bitcoin mayor]()" Francis Suarez's 2024 presidential bid, just released a tool called "[Ask AI Suarez]()," a realistic, AI-powered avatar of the candidate designed to answer questions about the current Miami mayor and his campaign. "Hi, I'm AI Francis Suarez," the bot says as it introduces itself. "You've probably heard that my namesake, conservative Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, is running for president. I'm here to answer questions you may have about Mayor Suarez's proven agenda for economic prosperity, cutting spending and supporting our police." "So," it continues, "how can I help?" Though a spokesperson for Suarez's campaign [told *The Miami Herald*]() that the official campaign confusingly has "nothing to do" with AI Suarez or "whatever the PAC does," [Suarez and the funding body have deep financial ties](). And in any case, a deep-pocketed campaign spender deploying a lifeless deepfake of a presidential candidate to interface with citizens feels deeply dystopian — not to mention a strange, cheap, and arguably lazy replacement for the real deal. ## Just Why Like other AI deepfakes, the bot's attempt at realism, from its tinny voice to its waxy expression, is just inhuman enough to be deeply unsettling. The format itself — which requires users to speak to their computers like they're trying to talk to their Amazon remotes — is tedious, to say the least. On top of that, it's unclear why it even needs to exist. All of its answers are pre-recorded, and the AI bot simply chooses which of those pre-recorded prompts best suits the query. And more often than not, the provided responses don't even do that. Case in point, when asked about hot-button conservative topics like access to abortion, for example, the bot replied with scripted monologues. But when asked about topics like environmental policy, healthcare, and Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine, AI Suarez launches into an unrelated spiel about Joe Biden's failures, protecting police officers, and China. In short, it's bizarre, unnecessary, and really just unhelpful. ## Bot Election It's yet another example of how burgeoning generative AI technologies, which in the US have already been used in multiple [political ads]() related to the [2024 campaign](), continue to make their way into the political sphere. And unfortunately, this might not be the last we see of AI Suarez, with a spokesperson for the PAC [telling *Fox News*]() that the AI will be used as a "campaign surrogate" that might one day even do media interviews — and if that doesn't raise all kinds of red flags, we don't know what will. ****More on AI and 2024:****[*Ron DeSantis Ad Features AI-Generated Images of Donald Trump Kissing Fauci*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()