Louisiana is only one of five states that has not introduced or passed legislation against the use of deepfakes in U.S. elections—even though the mayor of one of its largest cities was the target of a deepfake in the state’s 2022 general election.
Voters with a keen eye would have been able to easily spot the inaccuracies in the deepfake created against former Shreveport, Louisiana Mayor Adrian Perkins. For starters, the commercial showed him as a high school student, getting called to the principal’s office over his performance as mayor. Next came the voice. It sounded like Perkins, but the tone skewed younger.
But all the same—there he was, the mayor of Louisiana’s third largest city—with his head superimposed onto an actor’s body in a primetime television ad just two weeks before the election. He lost that election, garnering less than 17% of the vote.
Did that deepfake sway voters? It’s unlikely. But the introduction of deepfakes in local and federal elections alike has opened a pandora’s box that will be difficult—if not impossible—to close.