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AI-altered video clips of Adolf Hitler’s 1939 Reichstag speech at the beginning of World War II have recently gone viral. In the speech, Hitler proclaimed that the upcoming war would bring about the “annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.” While Hitler did say this, the speech in the video clips was translated from German to English. The videos, which feature text that makes it clear the speech was an AI audio translation, have been viewed more than 15 million times, according to X.
The two videos were first shared on Thursday by a hugely influential far-right conspiracy influencer known as Dom Lucre on X, who has previously shared child exploitation imagery.
In comments accompanying the videos on X, Lucre claimed he was simply “sharing what is news as I always do,” and warned that the videos are “extremely antisemitic.” However, comments on the videos indicate viewers have drawn their own opinions.
“I’m beginning to think we may have lost WWII,” wrote one commenter who has a verified X account. “It sounds like these people cared about their country above all else,” another follower wrote. Many others shared links to the 2017 neo-Nazi film Europa: The Last Battle.
Another conspiracy theorist, Owen Benjamin, also commented on the AI Hitler videos and erroneously claimed that they showed the dictator “didn’t want to go to war and was chastising other countries for not helping the [Jews].” Benjamin’s tweet has more than 3.5 million views.
X did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
The video clips appear to have been taken from a video first posted to YouTube two months ago by an account called Time Unveiled, which has also posted AI-translated videos featuring Osama bin Laden, Joseph Stalin, and Hideki Tojo.
In the Hitler video’s description section on YouTube, the creators said they used technology from voice-cloning startup ElevenLabs to generate the audio. ElevenLabs’ technology was also under fire earlier this year when it was used to help create an AI-generated robocall impersonating President Joe Biden. ElevenLabs and YouTube did not respond to requests for comment.
Lucre also posted one of the videos to his Instagram account, though it didn’t get nearly as much attention as his posts on X. Instagram did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment, and while Lucre’s account is still active, the video was removed from the platform over the weekend.
Lucre, whose real name is Dominick McGee, has become a hugely influential figure in conspiracy circles, where he shares QAnon content and GOP commentary, much of it accompanied by images or videos that have been altered. His content is often shared by prominent lawmakers, including former president Donald Trump.
Lucre first came to national attention last July when Elon Musk personally intervened to reinstate his account despite the fact that Lucre posted child exploitation images just days earlier, going against company policy.
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