There are currently no rules at either the state or federal level to stop political parties and candidates from using AI-generated material in election campaigns.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-22/qld-premier-slams-opposition-for-ai-generated-tiktok/104126936

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-23/labor-questioned-over-ai-generated-tiktok-of-peter-dutton/104131228

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[–] Ilandar@aussie.zone 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

This isn't a US politics thing, it is happening everywhere. Politics has been extremely negative and hyper-focused on character assassinations since the rise of social media - generative AI is just the latest weapon being used in this new battleground. Even if there are party rules or laws introduced to prevent official campaigns and offices from doing this, it will still continue to spread via the public. We are now living in an age where anyone can do this stuff pretty quickly and easily and that will only accelerate as the technology improves.

EDIT: Some examples of generative AI being used in major elections this year:

[–] stepchook@mastodon.au 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

@Ilandar @trk
No. We are perfectly capable of having our own version of the right wing extremist shambles. Reaction to hard times. Source good news. Stay calm and vote against them.

[–] Ilandar@aussie.zone -1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No what...?

[–] stepchook@mastodon.au 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

@Ilandar
I can't see the daily discussion topic, but it was something about Aus developing trends of USA politics. They're already here. We have two republican parties.

[–] unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

We have two republican parties

LNP and the Greens?

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I'm struggling to understand what's going on here, even if I click up to view context. If we're talking "two republican parties" with a lower case R, I'd think that would be Greens and (some of) Labor.

If we're talking about analogies to American politics, surely that would be LNP, One Nation, and United Australia Party, but the latter has just 1 Senator and zero state representatives, so maybe we're ignoring it to get to 2 Republican parties. Or maybe they meant Liberal and National as two parties?

Tagging @stepchook@mastodon.au, your interlocutor, for visibility.

[–] unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 3 points 2 months ago

Yeah I meant to include a "/s" because I'd probably associate Greens, Labor and around the "Malcolm Turbull" part of the Liberals with the Democrats, and the Nationals, One Nation, UAP and the rest of the Liberals with the Republicans

[–] stepchook@mastodon.au 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

@Zagorath @unionagainstdhmo
Allow me to focus on the anti-protest law.
How did that arise from the workers?
Isn't industrial action a fotrm of protest?

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I genuinely don't have any clue what you're trying to say here, sorry.

[–] stepchook@mastodon.au 1 points 2 months ago

@Zagorath
I love most things about the labor party, but the anti-protest laws passed on their watch. The law is undemocratic and does not represent my rights as a worker. Democracy under attack https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2024/07/03/protest-peril

[–] stepchook@mastodon.au 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

@unionagainstdhmo
I was being sarcastic. I meant republican in the American sense of being reactionary. The Labor party seems compromised by the mining lobby.

[–] unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Riiiiiight I thought you meant in terms of politics and my response about the Greens was being sarcastic. Though the Greens and LNP get dragged into culture wars alot easier than Labor

[–] stepchook@mastodon.au 1 points 2 months ago

@unionagainstdhmo @Zagorath
That is very insightful. obviously if the greens had more power, they would also end up having to strike more deals to get their bills passed. I understand that some compromise is how party politics works. Very sad that senator Payman had to go.

Still allowed to voice my dissent over issues that bother me. The anti-protest laws suck. In WA the fines are $15,000 for disrupting normal activity. 'Republican' is a confusing word. the anti-protest laws are downright Cromwellian

[–] stepchook@mastodon.au 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

@unionagainstdhmo
I'm not accusing the Labor party of popular sovereignty.

[–] unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

No, @Zagorath@aussie.zone did some analysis a while ago and found that Labor were overrepresented in parliament based on first preferences nationally, ignoring the electoral boundaries. The Greens, One Nation and various independents would have more representation in parliament if we didn't use localities to determine the makeup of parliament

[–] stepchook@mastodon.au 2 points 2 months ago

@unionagainstdhmo
I'm not about to vote liberal, but feel disappointed by some Labor decisions. The anti-protest law in particular seem to have bipartisan support despite democratic resistance. Protests over freedom of association were once the backbone of union membership and strength.

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's true.

The Greens proportionally deserve 18.4 seats, but have only 4.

Labor deserves 48.9 seats but has 68.

LNP deserves 53.6, but has 58.

One Nation deserves 7.4, has 0.

It's actually a very easy calculation to do yourself. Literally just 150 × percentage 1st preference votes. Obviously it's not perfect, because if you change the voting system you also change how parties campaign, which changes how the votes turn out. But it's a good rough idea.

But uhh...I'm not really sure how this is relevant to this thread.

[–] unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 2 points 2 months ago

But uhh…I’m not really sure how this is relevant to this thread.

Idk I was interpreting their comment as saying that Labor aren't very popular which is true at least in terms of first preferences

[–] Ilandar@aussie.zone 1 points 2 months ago

Ah I see, maybe this is a formatting error as you're commenting from Mastodon. From my perspective it looked like you were directly replying to my comment. That was confusing as you didn't appear to be responding to anything I'd said.