Image of a "gold bar" being hawked in a YouTube video ad that features an ultra-realistic computer-generated voice that sounds like former President Donald Trump. YouTube
Mark is an Indiana-based reporter who spent 16 years at the Indianapolis Star as an investigative news reporter, sports enterprise reporter and assistant sports editor. He is one of the three Indianapolis Star reporters who broke the Larry Nassar/USA Gymnastics story, which revealed how Nassar serially raped and assaulted child athletes while serving as the gymnastics team's doctor. The reporting, chronicled in books and the Netflix documentary "Athlete A", won numerous awards, including the University of Missouri’s Honor Medal and the Tom Renner Award from Investigative Reporters & Editors.
Mark’s reporting on a wide variety of other subjects has won 15 national and 20 first-place state awards, including Indiana Journalist of the Year as selected by the Society of Professional Journalists. A graduate of Indiana University, Alesia most recently worked as communications director for Indiana State University.
Earlier in his reporting career, Alesia worked at CBS SportsLine, the Daily Herald of suburban Chicago, the Los Angeles Daily News and Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise. He's frequently appeared on TV and radio, including CNN, ESPN and NPR.
More recently, he’s profited from Trump-themed nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, that take the form of digital trading cards.
Now someone is taking a decidedly AI-centric approach to exploiting Trump for profit through a new YouTube ad.
The ad looks — and, more, importantly sounds — as if the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination is peddling Trump-branded “gold bars.”
“Show your love and support for this country and get yours now,” says a voice that sounds remarkably like Trump’s voice.
The voice says “thousands of people are ordering their gold bars. And once we run out we are out for good. So order yours now while you still can. Thank you and have a blessed day.”
The ad’s voice is nearly indistinguishable from Trump’s voice, which no doubt fooled some people into hitting the “order now” button. Trump’s love of gold is legion — his private Boeing 757 jet, for example, is replete with gold-plated fixtures and finishes, and the Trump Organization peddles all manner of "gold collection" trinkets — making the phony gold bar ad plausibly authentic to some.
A disclaimer at the end says the sellers of the gold bars with Trump’s image are not connected to him or any political party.
“Any references to individual, organizations, or political figures are used for informational purposes only and do not imply endorsement or association,” it says.
And then the kicker: “Lastly, the audio used in this ad was computer generated.”
Trump’s campaign did not return Raw Story’s request for comment.
A website address used in the fake Trump ad says the domain has expired and is for sale, and it’s unclear who is behind the ad. But another ad link went to a site selling "free" Trump "$100 Bullion Bars" for shipping and handling fees ranging from $5.99 to $12.99 each. The bars are made to look like $100 in U.S. currency, perhaps fooling people who think they're worth $100 each.
It isn’t the first time a computer-generated Trump voice has been used in advertising.
In July, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s running against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, used artificial intelligence to make an ad with a voice that sounded like Trump criticizing Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
A Trump spokesman said it was a “desperate attempt … to deceive the American public.”
