‘Complete lie’: Jacinta Price rejects claims No campaign using fake images of Indigenous people

Warren Mundine and Jacinta Price have refuted allegations they have used AI-generated images of Aboriginal people to encourage people to oppose the Indigenous voice.

Senator Jacinta Price labelled the accusations ‘racist’ and ‘offensive’ and said they were completely baseless.

No campaigner Warren Mundine and Country-Liberal senator Jacinta Price have knocked back “racist” allegations they have used AI-generated images of Aboriginal people to encourage people to oppose the Indigenous voice.

Former NAIDOC co-chair and journalist John Paul Janke on Sunday told ABC Insiders that voice opposers had created the AI-generated images “to try to look like it is an Indigenous person supporting the No campaign”.

“Online, the No campaign have multiple social media pages. Some of them are now using AI with a Blak Indigenous character to try to look like it is an Indigenous person supporting the No campaign,” he said, speaking from the Garma festival.

John Paul Janke. Picture: Nick Cubbin

‘Hilarious’, says Warren Mundine. Picture: Adam Yip

When host David Speers interjected to question whether it was the official No campaign or “some random”, Mr Janke doubled down.

“No, from the No campaign. They are supporting obviously different voices, and they are under the guise of moderate voices against the voice like it’s Australians for Unity, but they are using AI of a Blak character that is supporting the No case,” he said.

Senator Price labelled the accusations “racist” and “offensive” and said they were completely baseless.

“Of all the racist, offensive, inaccurate things that have been said about this No campaign, this is probably the worst,” she tweeted on Sunday afternoon. “According to the ABC, the No campaign @FairAusADV (Advance Australia) has created AI fake Indigenous Australians who are voting no,” she said. ”A complete and utter lie!”

Of all the racist, offensive, inaccurate things that have been said about the No campaign, this is probably the worst. According to the ABC, the No campaign @fairAusADV has created AI fake indigenous Australians who are voting no. A complete and utter lie! pic.twitter.com/H1j5GQrPcx

— Jacinta Nampijinpa (@JNampijinpa) August 6, 2023

The Australian has discovered multiple AI-generated videos posted to Facebook by anti-voice group Constitutional Equality and authorised by its founder, Phillip Mobbs.

In the videos, an AI-generated man explains reasons to vote no in the referendum, including claims that up to 300,000 people who identify as Aboriginal are “not genuine”.

“Wow! I had never thought how voting YES combined with the trend in “race shifting” means that over time we are granting a constitutional power to frauds. A concerning video in under 3 mins,” the caption reads. “Cool AI too!”

A video uploaded to the Constitutional Equality facebook page. Picture: Facebook / Constitutional Equality

Mr Mundine told The Australian he was completely unaware of AI-generated images or videos that pedalled the No campaign.

”I’d like to see some evidence of that,” he said. “The only thing I’ve seen is real people speaking.”

While Mr Mundine said he knew “nothing” of fake images or videos, he conceded he could only speak for himself. “If someone is doing it, it‘s definitely not us,” he said. “The only ones we’ve got are real people.”

Fresh RedBridge polling, published by the Daily Telegraph on Sunday, showed the No case was running ahead, carrying 56 per cent of the vote nationally, ahead of the Yes case’s 44 per cent.

Mr Mundine said he refused to be complacent, but said the polling was indicative of a strong campaign from his camp.

“They (the Yes campaign) got all the corporates, the law associations and the doctors on their side, and yet they’re in this position,” he said. “We haven’t been speaking to any boards, any CEOs, we’ve just been speaking to members and supporters. We didn’t have the resources they did, we just spoke directly to the members.”