Political campaigns and groups have spent more than $137 million on ads made at least partly with artificial intelligence ahead of this year’s US midterm elections, according to new data from the Wesleyan Media Project reported by The New York Times.
The research group identified more than 220 AI-generated ads across 34 states this year. That is a jump from under $50,000 spent on such ads in the 2024 cycle. The researchers believe the real number is higher, since AI use is hard to detect and only 30 states require AI disclosures for political ads.
Republican campaigns and Republican-aligned political action committees dominate the field. They produced 81 percent of the identified ads and accounted for 88 percent of the spending, while Democrats sponsored 12 percent. Nearly half of the ads contain deepfake depictions of real politicians, the researchers found, and about 70 percent carried no disclaimer that AI was used.
One example: an ad from the campaign of Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate for New York governor, showed Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul promoting a fake “political delusion pill” for affordability and crime. The ad included no AI disclaimer. The New York State Democratic Party filed a complaint with the state’s Board of Elections in August.
“I think what we’re seeing with A.I. has surprised even us,” said Erika Franklin Fowler, professor at Wesleyan University and co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project. “Some of the ways in which A.I. is used, honestly, if there wasn’t a disclaimer on the ad, it would be hard to know that A.I. was there.” Her co-director Travis N. Ridout told the Times that Democratic candidates face more reputational risk when using a tool their party argues should be regulated.
Some Democrats have made their opposition to AI ads part of their pitch. An ad from James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Texas, closes with the words: “Made by humans. Not AI.”
Source: Gizmodo
