An audio clip, which claims to be of Vice President JD Vance criticizing Elon Musk has gone viral on social media, prompting Vance’s communications director to state that the recording is not real.
Why It Matters
As AI tools become more intelligent and more widely used, the rise of AI-generated video and audio misinformation has begun to escalate rapidly. According to a report from Humanize AI the development of AI deepfake tools surged by 44 percent in 2023 and grew by 28 percent in 2024 with AI Voice Generator having the highest website traffic, reaching 16.8M visits.
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What To Know
William Martin, the vice president’s communications director said in a post on X that the audio recording is fake. He wrote that it was, “Most certainly not the Vice President,” along with a link to a post which has since been deleted.
The quality of the audio is very poor and distorted. There is no source or context given to the audio, and no explanation is offered as to why a random social media account would have a confidential recording of the vice president speaking, an incredibly unlikely situation.
Many fake AI recordings are clearly intended to be humorous, but this particular one shows little sign of that.
The video appears to originate from the account Joseiitalia on TikTok, where it received 1.5 million views as of reporting. It was also shared to X where it received over 500,000 views and has also been posted on multiple Reddit threads.
The Joseiitalia TikTok account frequently shares videos which have a critical tone of President Donald Trump, including one which was viewed over 2 million times where people are filmed chanting, “Impeach Trump,” and the video was captioned with that same phrase.
In the recording itself, the person imitating Vance talks negatively about Musk, saying: “Everything that he’s doing is getting criticized in the media and he says that he’s helping and he’s not, he’s making us look bad.”
The voice also says, “he’s making me look bad,” and “he has the audacity to act like he is an elected official. I am an elected official, I am the important one in this situation.”
This does not align with what Vance or people in his team have said publicly about Musk.
Though Vance did acknowledge in an interview with NBC News that Musk has made mistakes during the mass firings of federal employees. He told the outlet that, “Elon himself has said that sometimes you do something, you make a mistake, and then you undo the mistake. I’m accepting of mistakes.”
That same month, The Washington Post reported that Musk and Vance have “their own friendship,” are “personally close,” and that Vance has “no issue with the attention Musk receives,” citing associates of Vance’s.
Musk is an ever-growing presence in the U.S. and in global politics; a staunch ally of Trump, he has been appointed by the president to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and has used his X, formerly Twitter, platform to push right-wing political movements globally.
What People Are Saying
William Martin, Communications Director for JD Vance on X: “This audio is 100% fake and most certainly not the Vice President.”
One social media user on TikTok: “With the rise of AI, I don’t know what to believe.”
One social media user on X: “That doesn’t sound like Vance. You are pathetic for posting such a lie. Wouldn’t be surprised if someone takes legal action.”
What’s Next
Given the prevalence of AI and misinformation online, similar situations to this one may well arise again in the future.
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