Prime Minister accuses No campaign of spreading AI misinformation
Anthony Albanese has accused the No campaign of spreading AI-generated misinformation ahead of the referendum, escalating his attack on media commentators opposed to his proposed constitutional change.
Anthony Albanese has accused the No campaign of spreading AI-generated misinformation ahead of the voice referendum, escalating his attack on media commentators opposed to his proposed constitutional change, including Peta Credlin and Andrew Bolt.
On WSFM radio with Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones, the Prime Minister said it was “pretty scary frankly, some of the No campaign and stuff that’s going into people’s Facebook posts which is designed to spread misinformation”.
“Some of it is AI-generated, some of it generated, of course, by people like the commentators that you have said.”
The commentators mentioned by Jones included Sky News hosts Credlin and Bolt, with Mr Albanese arguing on Monday that “some of the media outlets are pretty determined to promote the No campaign.”
His claim AI technology was being used to attack the voice was rejected by the No campaign, spokeswoman Jacinta Price accusing the government of a “campaign of misinformation, spin, and outright lies”.
“This time using the soft touch media of FM radio to slander the No campaign and media commentators with their divisive untruths around the use of AI,” Senator Price said. “I, and many Australians, are in disbelief that the PM seems to be able to speak in great detail about the No campaign, but unable to speak to any of the detail in his divisive voice proposal.”
It is the second time the No campaign has been forced to reject accusations it is using AI technology after former NAIDOC co-chair and journalist John Paul Janke made the claim on the ABC’s Insiders program on August 6.
Janke said the No campaign had used AI to make it appear “like it is an Indigenous person supporting the No campaign”.
The video Janke was referring to was made by a group called Constitutional Equality, run by cryptocurrency trader Phillip Mobbs, which has no connection with the No campaign.
Mr Mobbs told the ABC last week he had never had any contact with No campaign spokespeople Warren Mundine or Senator Price.
Bolt told The Australian he challenged Mr Albanese to “identify the misinformation he claims I’ve spread”.
“Many of my pieces have been written to correct his misinformation, including fake claims that the voice would only give advice on matters directly affecting Aboriginals and the voice wouldn’t ask the High Court to overrule the government,” Bolt said. “That is the misinformation that I think is extremely dangerous and deceitful.”
Mr Albanese singled out Credlin for particular criticism after the former chief-of-staff to Tony Abbott said the Uluru Statement from the Heart was a longer document than the 439-word statement made in 2017.
Credlin said the longer document was an “angry manifesto of grievance, separatism, division and compensation”.
Speaking on ABC radio on Monday, Mr Albanese said: “Peta Credlin is a smart person. She must know that that’s not true.
“She is saying things that she knows is not true. As is Peter Dutton … no serious person thinks that that’s the case.”
Credlin told The Australian: “The people wheeled out last week to bolster the PM’s claim that it’s just a … one-page poster are all the same people who for six years since Uluru have implored us to read what they regard as the full document of many pages in length.
“It just doesn’t stack up, that suddenly what’s been true for years is not true now … As to the slights and the slurs, quite honestly that just says to me we are getting closer and closer to the truth.”
While Mr Albanese told the ABC The Australian had provided “substantial coverage of the Yes campaign as well as the No campaign”, he has ramped up criticism of journalists who have covered the No campaign.
Speaking in parliament earlier this month, he took aim at both The Daily Telegraph’s national affairs editor James Morrow and 2GB radio host Ray Hadley.
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