Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) warned during a Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing this week that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using state-of-the-art AI to create “deep fakes” to destabilize the U.S.

Deep fakes are photos and videos that have been digitally manipulated to alter voices or images or other aspects of the content to appear authentic in an effort to deceive whoever is viewing the material.

“The threat of disinformation, weaponizing information against the United States and our allies to divide us, divide our citizens is on the rise,” said Ricketts. “It’s especially so because we all have access to [smart phones] now, so citizens and policymakers all have access to that through social media or other sorts of platforms. But the idea that our adversaries would try to use disinformation to devise is not new.”

Ricketts mentioned that the Soviet Union during the Cold War spent billions on disinformation campaigns as part of their statecraft to destabilize the U.S. and U.S. allies at the time.

“And I believe that in 1980, for example, there was a conservative estimate, the Soviet Union spent $3 billion on disinformation campaigns as part of their overall strategy,” he said, noting that the Soviet Union outspent the U.S. 10-to-1 in disinformation campaigns at the time.

Ricketts also spoke on the topic of artificial intelligence, saying that China has become a “global leader in artificial intelligence.”

“And they’ve been developing for a long time now something called ‘deep fake’ technology, and it has progressed along to the point where they’ve been able to use AI to distort public figures,” he said. “An example of how a public figure might be distorted is when Zelensky was portrayed as announcing a surrender last year. And the software can not only use be used to distort real people, but could also create people out of whole cloth. … So we’ve got this deep fake video technology that can create fictitious people. They can be used to really cloud even further people’s ability to discern what’s real information, what’s not real information.”

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Law enforcement officials have taken one person into custody after a person was shot on Thursday at the home of recently retired UFC star fighter Jorge Masvidal in Southwest Miami-Dade.

TMZ reported that Masvidal, 38, was not home at the time of the incident, but that his father, Jorge Masvidal Sr., was taken into police custody and was being interviewed over the incident.

Miami-Dade Police responded to a call at the home around 3 p.m. and discovered EMTs were providing aid to “an adult male who was shot in his upper extremities.”

Police said that the victim told them that he was “involved in an argument that escalated when the subject produced a firearm and shot him.”

Police confirmed that Masvidal, who retired from UFC last month, “was not present during the incident and did not have any involvement.”

The victim and the subject were involved in an argument when a gun was pulled out. The two parties reportedly knew each other.

Masvidal is one of the most well-known fighters in the world and is especially big among conservatives as he has repeatedly praised Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump.

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Masvidal also is well known for his staunchly anti-communist views.

In 2021, Masvidal called former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick a “coward” over Kaepernick’s previous wearing of a Fidel Castro t-shirt.

“Know ur history and facts cowards like this fool should be sent to live in Cuba see what they say after a day there,” Masvidal wrote in a post published to the UFC star’s Instagram.

Masvidal was scheduled to participate in a bare knuckle fight on Friday night. It’s unclear whether those plans might change due to the incident that happened at his home.

“Putting together the final pieces for the first sanctioned bare knuckle fight in Florida,” he tweeted Thursday. “We used to risk our freedom for this now we’re getting legal checks for this what a blessing @GamebredFC”

Putting together the final pieces for the first sanctioned bare knuckle fight in Florida. We used to risk our freedom for this now we’re getting legal checks for this what a blessing @GamebredFC pic.twitter.com/nLdBm0Vgi0

— BMF.eth (@GamebredFighter) May 4, 2023