AI deepfake ads grow more popular in US midterm campaigns, blurring truth

San Francisco, USA: Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who is running for governor of New York, released campaign ads featuring Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayor, and Kathy Hochul, the state’s governor, gardening together and collaborating to raise prices for residents.

Another ad features Hochul talking about hiking tolls and fares so people cannot afford to drive or take the subway.

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Neither Hochul nor Mamdani was actually in the ads, which were made using artificial intelligence (AI). A spate of AI-generated ads that are obviously fake but grab voter attention have been a feature of campaigns in the lead up to the pivotal United States midterm elections on November 3.

While regulation has focused on labelling AI deepfakes that could mislead voters, it is “slopaganda” – or identifiably fake ads – that mark this campaign season, says Scott Babwah Brennen, director of New York University’s Center on Technology Policy and co-author of a recent report, Political Slopaganda.

Political candidates and their supporters have spent more than $80m to make more than 164 AI-based ads this election season, according to the Wesleyan Media Project, a non-partisan election advertising tracker. Republican candidates and their backers were behind 80 percent of these ads, the group found.

Blakeman defended his ads, saying they were clearly labelled as AI-generated – a disclaimer the ads do carry for a few seconds at the start – and follow a long tradition of satire and parody in American politics.

Other such ads showed Sherrod Brown, a Senate Democratic candidate from the state of Ohio, as the last guest at a party, having overstayed his welcome.