An explosion of AI deepfakes is redefining American elections
Article excerpt
Campaign ads featuring AI-generated deepfakes have moved from science-fiction curiosity to mainstream election strategy, with attack ads now placing candidates in fabricated compromising situations across the country. The practice remains largely unregulated, raising urgent questions about voter manipulation and election integrity as the midterms approach. Election officials and tech experts warn that deepfakes could undermine public trust in political advertising and make it harder for voters to distinguish fact from fiction. Some campaigns have already deployed the technology; others are racing to develop detection tools. The challenge comes as regulators struggle to keep pace with AI's rapid evolution and politicians debate whether new laws are needed.
Campaign ads featuring AI-generated clips and images once sounded like a laughable concept. Now they're everywhere, with attack ads that place candidates in a wide variety of compromising, and fictitious, situations.
Why it matters: This largely unregulated practice is warping the unspoken norms of political campaigns and blurring the line between truth and fiction.
Some campaigns voluntarily disclose this AI use, but it's not required.
Democrats want to change that if they retake control of Congress in November.
Driving the news: The latest spot to push the envelope is an attack ad against Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico from a President Trump-aligned group called Citizens for Sanity.
The ad depicts Talarico in a dress singing an abridged version of "Favorite Things" about transgender children.
Talarico has been a frequent target of this practice: The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) used AI in March to depict Talarico reciting past social media posts. The posts were real. Talarico reading them was not.
Zoom out: While the Texas Senate race has been a hotbed of AI use, Republicans John Cornyn and Ken Paxton and Democrat Jasmine Crockett all utilized it to some extent in the primaries, it is far from the only one.
The GOP primary in Kentucky's 4th district saw widespread AI use by both sides.
That included a "throuple" ad, which contained deepfakes of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) dining, checking into a hotel and holding hands with Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
Pro-Massie spots used AI to depict an elephant with Trump-like hair and a MAGA cap, and Ed Gallrein, Massie's challenger, abandoning Trump in a foxhole.
In Georgia, gubernatorial candidate Brad Raffensperger used AI in multiple ads to depict his GOP primary opponents wildly shooting guns in the air and fighting each other with pugil sticks.
A new ad from another Georgia gubernatorial candidate, Burt Jones, is entirely AI-generated and features depictions of his GOP primary runoff opponent Rick Jackson shoveling money into a furnace and inflating a hot air balloon with his breath.
It's not just Republicans making use of AI:
In Texas, Crockett made use of AI to inflate the crowd size in one of her ads and posted an AI video to social media of herself, Trump and others as babies.
In New York City, Democrat-turned-independent Andrew Cuomo used AI in the mayoral election in an ad that portrayed him performing various jobs, including subway conductor, stockbroker, stagehand and window washer.
In Maryland, a new ad from Democrat Harry Dunn in the 5th congressional district includes a brief shot of AI-generated men in suits reading "Crypto" and "AIPAC" tossing golden basketballs into a carnival free-throw game.