NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 What sounds like President Donald Trump narrating a new Fannie Mae ad actually is an AI-cloned voice reading text, according to a disclaimer in the video.<\/p>\n
The voice in the ad, created with permission from the Trump administration, promises an \u201call new Fannie Mae\u201d and calls the institution the \u201cprotector of the American Dream.\u201d The ad comes as the administration is making a big push to show voters it is responding to their concerns about affordability, including in the housing market. <\/p>\n
Trump plans to talk about housing at his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where world leaders and corporate executives meet this week.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time a member of the Trump family has used AI to replicate their voice, First Lady Melania Trump recently employed AI technology firm Eleven Labs to help voice the audio version of her memoir. It\u2019s not known who cloned President Trump\u2019s voice for the Fannie Mae ad.<\/p>\n
Last month, Trump pledged in a prime-time address<\/a> that he would roll out \u201csome of the most aggressive housing reform plans in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor generations, home ownership meant security, independence, and stability,\u201d Trump\u2019s digitized voice says in the one-minute ad aired Sunday. \u201cBut today, that dream feels out of reach for too many Americans not because they stopped working hard but because the system stopped working for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Fannie Mae and its counterpart Freddie Mac, which have been under government control since the Great Recession, buy mortgages that meet their risk criteria from banks, which helps provide liquidity for the housing market. The two firms guarantee roughly half of the $13 trillion U.S. home loan market and are a bedrock of the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n The ad says Fannie Mae will work with the banking industry to approve more would-be homebuyers for mortgages. <\/p>\n Trump, Bill Pulte, who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and others have said they want to sell shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on a major stock exchange but no concrete plans have been set.<\/p>\n Trump and Pulte have also floated extending the 30-year mortgage to 50 years<\/a> in order to lower monthly payments. Trump appeared to back off the proposal after critics said a longer-term loan would reduce people\u2019s ability to create housing equity and increase their own wealth.<\/p>\n Trump also said on social media earlier this month that he was directing the federal government to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds<\/a>, a move he said would help reduce mortgage rates at a time when Americans are anxious about home prices. Trump said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have $200 billion in cash that will be used to make the purchase.<\/p>\n