AI is producing reality-bending midterm ads about defaced Bibles, upscale dinners and a board game with a “Death to America” playing card.
Why it matters: The warnings about deepfakes are coming true. Election laws haven’t kept pace with a world where campaigns can put words in opponents’ mouths and create realistic-looking scenes that didn’t happen.
- The Wesleyan Media Project found $137 million had been spent on 220 AI-generated ads through Oct. 11, mostly from Republicans.
- Four states have laws prohibiting certain uses of AI-generated deepfakes in political ads, while 27 more require some form of disclosure about their use.
- No federal law specifically regulates AI-generated political ads.
The big picture: An Axios analysis found numerous political ads partly or fully made by generative AI, sometimes undisclosed.
From AI—Ironically:
Campaigns and super PACs are utilizing generative AI in diverse ways, ranging from highly realistic “synthetic attacks” to absurd parodies: [1, 2]
- Texas Senate Race: The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) ran a highly realistic ad featuring Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico appearing to doodle in a Bible while reciting out-of-context and spliced comments. Talarico’s campaign condemned the video as a deceptive deepfake, while his opponent’s camp maintained they were grounding the content in actual public source material. Talarico later released a counter-ad with the onscreen tagline “Made by humans, not A.I.”. [1, 2, 3]
- Michigan Senate Race: A super PAC called Front Line Action deployed an AI-generated ad targeting Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed. The ad depicted El-Sayed playing a Risk-style board game alongside fabricated cards that read “Death to America” and “Celebrate 9/11”. The PAC defended the ad, noting it included both written and spoken AI disclosures. [1]
- New York Gubernatorial Race: Republican candidate Bruce Blakeman distributed a video utilizing the likenesses and voices of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul. The deepfake showed them gardening together while promoting a fictional “political delusion pill”. The ad initially featured no disclaimer. [1, 2, 3]
- Georgia Senate Race: An unauthorized deepfake ad targeted Senator Jon Ossoff, depicting him sitting in a salon chair receiving a facial and makeup. Ossoff publicly called out the ad, labeling deepfakes a “slippery slope toward the destruction of truth and political debate.” [1, 2]
Federal Action
There is currently no federal law specifically regulating AI-generated political advertisements. While members of Congress have proposed over 150 AI-related bills, none have successfully passed into law. [1, 2]
The “Satire” Loophole
Enforcing these state-level restrictions has proven difficult due to free speech challenges. Many groups creating deepfakes argue their ads are protected political satire or parody, which are generally exempt from outright bans or disclosure mandates. Furthermore, legal complaints filed regarding illegal AI ads often take months to investigate, meaning regulatory rulings are rarely issued until long after the election has already concluded.