Kamala Harris Struggling to Describe AI Viewed 800K Times

Footage of Vice President Kamala Harris attempting to explain artificial intelligence (AI) on Wednesday has gone viral online, with one critic saying it sounded "like she had a report due on AI, but absolutely didn't read the book."

Joe Biden launched his 2024 re-election campaign alongside Harris, which experts interpreted as a strong hint she will once again be his running mate. Continued intense scrutiny of Harris, who has a track record of making convoluted statements that have been mocked as "word salads" by critics, is inevitable.

Harris was discussing AI at a roundtable event with a group of civil rights and labor protection experts, with the conversation covering the risk to Americans from AI-generated scams, and the danger of AI being discriminatory while hiring people for jobs.

Speaking at the roundtable Harris commented: "I think the first part of this issue that should be articulated is AI is kind of a fancy thing, first of all, it's two letters, it means artificial intelligence but ultimately what it is is it's about machine learning.

"And so the machine is taught and part of the issue here is what information is going into the machine that will then determine, and we can predict then if we think about what information is going in, what then will be produced in terms of decisions and opinions that may be made through that process."

A 41-second clip of her comments was shared on Twitter by an official Republican National Committee account, where it was viewed more than 800,000 times.

Several other Twitter users also shared the video, with a number mocking the vice president's performance.

Comedian Tim Young wrote: "Kamala Harris sounds like she had a report due on AI, but absolutely didn't read the book. It's absolutely impossible to believe that this person made it through law school, was able to pass the bar and was the AG of a state."

Kevin Dalton, who stood unsuccessfully for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2022, posted: "It's nearly impossible to tell the difference between Kamala Harris speaking about AI and Bart Simpson's book report on Treasure Island."

A third Twitter user, who says they are a Donald Trump supporter living in New York City, said: "Kamala Harris needs someone to explain AI to her like she was five years old before she tries to explain AI to us like we were five years old..."

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.

It is far from the first verbal gaffe the vice president has made during her time in the White House. The day prior to the AI roundtable, Harris said during a transport meeting: "This issue of transportation is fundamentally about just making sure that people have the ability to get where they need to go!"

Footage of this was also posted on Twitter by the RNC Research account, attracting over 470,000 views.

Earlier this month, Harris spoke at the 2023 Essence Festival of Culture where she said: "Culture is—it is a reflection of our moment and our time. Right? And present culture is the way we express how we're feeling about the moment, and we should always find times to express how we feel about the moment. That is a reflection of joy. Because, you know, it comes in the morning."

Harris sparked confusion during an appearance on Today in January 2022 where she discussed the coronavirus pandemic with Craig Melvin.

"It is time for us to do what we have been doing, and that time is every day. Every day, it is time for us to agree that there are things and tools that are available to us to slow this thing down," the vice president said during the interview.

Attendees at the AI roundtable Harris hosted included Alexandra Reeve Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology think tank, Janet Murguia who heads Latino advocacy group UnidosUS and Liz Shuler, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Discussing AI the vice president also commented: "We have a sense of urgency that we get in front of this issue in terms of understanding the implications so that we can work as a community of folks, private sector, public sector, nonprofits, government, to do what is in the best interest of the health and safety and well-being of the people of our country."

In November 2022, ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot created by OpenAI, was launched. The program is able to give "accurate and actionable information" regarding some health issues, according to a study published on June 7 in the journal JAMA Network Open.

In May Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, warned about the dangers of AI during an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

He said: "I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong. And we want to be vocal about that. We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening."