The conspiracy theorists who think Biden has been replaced by AI

Enlarge / Joe Biden—or is it his AI-powered hologram? (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

At 1:18 pm ET on July 21, 2023, President Joe Biden stepped to the podium in the White House’s Roosevelt Room and announced, “I’m the AI.” The official transcript of the event says that this remark was followed by “laughter,” but it’s no joke to the increasing number of conspiracy theorists who claim that the real Joe Biden has been somehow replaced by artificial intelligence.

For instance, in a new story published today, The New York Times looked at conspiracy theorists who questioned whether (or even claimed that) Biden had died. Of course, if he was dead, the cabal of elites running the Biden administration, in true Weekend at Bernie’s fashion, certainly couldn’t admit that he was dead. Fortunately, they could use AI to make it look like Biden was still alive!

That sort of thinking led to one influencer’s “just asking questions” post on July 24, 2024, which was viewed 78,000 times: “What If [sic] during this supposed live broadcast to the nation the holographic AI glitches and Joe Biden dissappears [sic] for a few seconds now that we know the software they have been using in Azure has been compromised?”