A video being shared on social media appears to show US Vice President Kamala Harris saying during a speech: “Today is today. And yesterday was today yesterday. Tomorrow will be today tomorrow. So live today so the future today will be as the past today, as it is tomorrow.”
But this is not the video’s original audio and it has been edited—possibly using artificial intelligence (AI)—to make it look authentic.
One post sharing the video on X (formerly Twitter) in recent days has almost 3,000 shares, and says: “Is this fake? Please tell me this is fake. Actually, tell me it’s real so I can laugh even harder.” Screenshots of the video with text supposedly quoting her words have also been shared on Facebook. The clip also circulated in 2023.
But the video’s original audio does not show Ms Harris saying this, and the audio in the clip being shared was created by someone doing an impression of her.
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Where did the video come from?
The clip shows Ms Harris speaking at Howard University, in Washington DC, on 25 April 2023.
The original footage and transcript actually show her saying in the clip: “So I think it’s very important—as you have heard from so many incredible leaders—for us, at every moment in time, and certainly this one, to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present, and to be able to contextualise it, to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment as it relates not only to the past, but the future.”
She was reportedly criticised at the time for her language being unclear.
The video circulating with different audio appears to have been created by an X account, whose account name, “Ramble Rants” has been added to the text on the podium. The original footage shows it said “fighting for reproductive freedom”.
In a post sharing the video on 30 April 2023, the account links to another video and says it’s the “impression I used for the meme”.
This video shows a woman appearing to do an impression of Ms Harris, saying “A Kamala Harris riddle. Let’s go,” and then she says the excerpt from the social media clips, followed by “Now what the f*** did I just say?”
Moreover, the X account that first shared this clip commented on a post of the edited video of Ms Harris saying: “The video is doctored. It is my voice someone made the video [sic]”. There are multiple other clips of the same woman supposedly doing other impressions of the Vice President.
One big giveaway that the audio isn’t genuine is that there is no background noise, despite the fact that she is speaking in front of a crowd.
Why does the fake audio match the video?
While the audio clip itself has not been generated using AI, it’s possible that AI was used to lip sync the audio with the footage of Ms Harris speaking.
Dr Dominic Lees, an Associate Professor in Filmmaking and convenor of the University of Reading’s Synthetic Media Research Network, has previously told Full Fact that poor lip syncing can be a telltale sign of deepfake content, and often causes haziness around the lips and mouth area. In particular, he said deepfakes “find it very difficult to generate a natural look in the teeth so often leave this blurry and out-of-focus”.
We’ve seen other digitally altered content appearing to show public figures say or do things that they haven’t. This includes BBC presenters and financial expert Martin Lewis seemingly promoting an investment project, as well as politicians such as Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Health minister Wes Streeting, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan make comments that there’s no evidence they actually said. You can follow our guide here to help spot deepfake videos.