Meghan and Harry delve back into US politics ahead of 2024 election: Duke and Duchess of Sussex team up with ‘Hollywood power players’ to fight the onslaught of AI ‘deepfakes’

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are wading back into American politics, joining a campaign to warn American voters about misinformation in the upcoming presidential election.

Their Archewell Foundation and other Hollywood political players are backing an initiative to prepare American voters for a possible attack from AI deepfake intelligence. Axios reported.

Specifically, the Archewell Foundation is helping to brainstorm new content for the campaign.

It is the second time that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have become involved in presidential elections. During the 2020 election, they urged Americans to register to vote and reject misinformation.

In the aftermath, Republicans and other critics called on the royal family to strip the couple of their titles, calling the duke and duchess’s interference inappropriate.

This year’s campaign is coordinated by Miles Taylor, Chief Policy Officer of The Future US. Taylor served as chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security during Donald Trump’s presidency and was the anonymous author of a New York Times op-ed exposing the dangers of Trump’s presidency.

He is now raising alarm bells about the use of fake videos and images.

“This is a disaster waiting to happen – no one is doing the public vaccination,” he told Axios.

With the advent of cheap generative AI and a plethora of social media platforms available, experts warn that manipulated images, edited videos and misleading robocalls could dominate this year’s politics.

Complicating matters further is a lack of regulation and coordination between relevant federal agencies and social media companies.

‘The government does not talk to social media companies. Many of the social media companies don’t want anything to do with government, which means new AI threats could be missed,” Taylor noted.

Google, Meta and OpenAI have pledged to combat misleading AI election content, while two ads have been produced by Jesse Dylan, Bob Dylan’s son, to raise awareness of the issue. The ads will run in battleground states this spring.

The Sussexes’ involvement will reignite questions about Meghan’s political ambitions.

A representative for the Duke and Duchess did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.

But Meghan’s ambitions have been talked about since she and Harry emigrated from Britain during the ‘Megxit’ crisis, including claims she would ‘seriously consider’ running for president if her husband dropped his royal title .

The couple also hired former top aides to Barack Obama to their foundation, fueling speculation about their political future.

And a few years ago, a friend of the duchess told Vanity Fair magazine that one of the reasons why Meghan did not give up her American citizenship when she married into the royal family was so that she kept open the possibility of entering politics.

She has already become involved in policy issues.

The Duchess was an outspoken critic of the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Roe vs. Wade and threatened to go to Washington DC to participate in the protests.

She also lobbied members of Congress to pass mandatory paid parental leave, writing to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Shumer and unsolicited senators asking them to ask to support the measure.

She signed her letters to lawmakers with her royal title: “Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex.”

But in 2020, the Sussexes were accused of “breaching” the terms of the ‘Megxit’ deal after repeatedly urging Americans to vote in the presidential election.

In a video posted online a few months before voters went to the polls, Harry and Meghan delivered a message that was widely interpreted as an expression of support for Joe Biden.

The Duke of Sussex urged people to “reject hate speech,” while the Duchess called it the “most important election of our lifetimes” and brought Americans to the polls.

The comments caused an uproar on both sides of the Atlantic, although their spokespeople claimed their message was not directed at any particular candidate but was the Sussexes’ way of expressing concerns about the tone in politics.

Then-President Trump wished Harry good luck in response.

“I’m not a fan of her,” Trump said of Meghan. “I’d like to say this – and she’s probably heard this – I wish Harry the best of luck, because he’s going to need it.”

Royal insiders raised concerns in Britain, where the royal family is expected to remain politically neutral at all times, with one saying Harry and Meghan had “crossed a line.”

Buckingham Palace also distanced itself from Harry’s comments, saying that “the Duke is not a working member of the Royal Family” and describing his comments as “made in a personal capacity.”

Although British law does not explicitly prohibit members of the royal family from voting, the expectation that royals remain apolitical is considered sacrosanct, and in practice they never participate in elections, by voting or otherwise.

After the incident, Missouri Congressman Jason Smith sent a letter to the British ambassador to the United States, asking Meghan and Harry to lose their titles.

‘As you know, the British Royal Family has long pursued a policy of strict neutrality in political matters. “I am therefore concerned by the recent comments made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex regarding the US presidential election, particularly given international conversations about foreign interference in our elections and the Duke’s status as a guest of the United States,” he wrote in the letter . a copy of which was obtained by DailyMail.com.

King Charles controls Harry and Meghan’s titles but is acting on advice from the government – meaning it is up to him to act against the couple, but he would likely only take such a step on advice from the office of the Prime Minister.

Also ahead of the 2020 election, feminist activist Gloria Steinem revealed that Markle had joined her in cold-calling Americans, urging them to vote.

Steinem said Admission to Hollywood: “She came home to vote. The first thing we did, and why she came to see me, was we sat at the dinner table where I’m sitting now and we cold-called voters.”

‘Said ‘hello, I’m Meg’ and ‘hello, I’m Gloria’ and ‘are you going to vote?’ That was her initiative.’

Before marrying Prince Harry in 2018, Markle was no stranger to politics and ridiculed then-presidential candidate Donald Trump during a 2016 appearance on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.

She said Trump was “misogynistic and divisive” and expressed her support for Hillary Clinton.

Harry is a friend of former President Barack Obama and interviews him in a guest editor’s interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today Program in 2017.

“Part of my role and part of my job is to draw attention to issues that need that attention, whether they’re people, whether they’re causes, problems, whatever they are,” Harry said at the time.

‘So I will continue to play my role in society and do my job as best as I can, so that I wake up in the morning and feel energetic.’