Meghan and Harry to wade back into US politics ahead of 2024 election: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are working with ‘Hollywood power players’ to fight the onslaught of AI ‘deepfakes’

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are again wading into American politics, participating in a campaign to warn American voters against misinformation in the upcoming presidential election.

Their Archewell Foundation and other political actors in Hollywood support an initiative to prepare American voters for a possible attack by AI deepfake information, 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 a presidential election. In the 2020 contest, 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 for The Future US. Taylor was the chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security during Donald Trump’s presidency and was the anonymous author of a New York Times story exposing the dangers of a Trump presidency.

He is now ringing alarm bells about the use of fake videos and pictures.

“This is a disaster waiting to happen — nobody 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 deceptive robocalls could dominate this year’s politics.

Complicating matters is a lack of regulation and coordination between the 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 the government — which means new AI threats can be missed,” noted Taylor.

Google, Meta and OpenAI have pledged to fight 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 this spring in battleground states.

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 the UK 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 for 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 Meghan didn’t give up her American citizenship when she married into the royal family was to allow her to keep the opportunity open to enter politics.

She has already engaged in political issues.

The Duchess was a vocal critic of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade and threatened to go to Washington DC to march in the protests.

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

She signed her letters to lawmakers with her royal title: ‘Meghan, 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 they posted online a few months before voters went to the polls, Harry and Meghan delivered a message that was widely interpreted as an endorsement of Joe Biden.

The Duke of Sussex urged people to ‘reject hate speech’, while the Duchess called it ‘the most important election of our lives’ and urged Americans to go to the polls.

The comments caused a stir on both sides of the Atlantic, although their spokespeople claimed their message was not aimed at any particular candidate, but was the Sussexes’ way of expressing their concern about the tone of politics.

Then-President Trump wished Harry luck in response.

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

Royal insiders expressed concern 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 remarks, saying “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 expressly prohibit members of the royal family from voting, the expectation that the royals remain apolitical is considered sacrosanct, and in practice they never participate in elections, by voting or otherwise.

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

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

King Charles controls Harry and Meghan’s titles but acts on the advice of the government – meaning it would be up to him to act against the couple, but would likely only make such a move on advice from the Prime Minister’s office.

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

Steinem told Access Hollywood: ‘She came home to vote. The first thing we did, and why she came to see me, was we sat at the dining room table, where I am right now, and we cold-called voters.’

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

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

She said Trump was ‘misogynistic and divisive’ and indicated her support for Hillary Clinton.

Harry is a friend of former President Barack Obama, and interviewed him in a guest-edited episode of BBC Radio 4’s Today program in 2017.

“Part of my role and part of my job is to shine a spotlight on issues that need this spotlight, whether it’s people, whether it’s causes, issues, whatever it is,” Harry said at the time.

‘So I will continue to play my part in society and do my job to the best of my ability so that I can wake up in the morning and feel energized.’