AI-Generated Content Floods U.S. Midterm Election Campaigns
Artificial intelligence is being used by Russian state actors and U.S. Republican candidates to influence voters through deepfakes and bot-driven disinformation campaigns.
The U.S. midterm elections are facing a surge of artificial intelligence-generated content from both foreign and domestic sources. The Federal Government of Russia is deploying a state-backed bot network called Matryoshka to manipulate view counts on AI-fabricated videos. Since early September, this campaign has used deepfakes of celebrities like Robert De Niro and Cher to promote the #AllDemocratsAreCriminals hashtag and spread false corruption allegations against Democratic candidates.
Domestically, Republican candidates and aligned political action committees have spent over $137 million on AI-generated advertisements. Research from the Wesleyan Media Project indicates Republicans produced more than 80 percent of 220 reviewed AI ads, which include deceptive deepfakes and stock footage replacements. Examples include a Make Oklahoma Great Again ad featuring a Democratic candidate with Hillary Clinton and a series of attack ads by New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman.
Legal and regulatory tensions are rising as only 31 percent of reviewed ads disclosed the use of AI. The New York State Democratic Party has filed a complaint against Bruce Blakeman for violating state laws regarding deceptive communications. Meanwhile, the American Association of Political Consultants is advocating for federal regulations to label deceptive AI content while maintaining protections for political speech.
