AI is upending the way voters take part in the democratic process. The worst part? You might not even know you’ve been affected.
In the county of St. Charles, Missouri, a race for county executive has devolved into slop-slinging of the AI variety. According to local channel First Alert 4, conservative candidate Jason Law is flooding the airwaves with an AI-generated video depicting his two rivals Steve Ehlmann and Bill Eigel as co-conspirators in a nefarious plot against voters.
“Steve, wake up, I’ve been telling people for 12 years that I’ll cut their personal property taxes, and they still believe me” the AI-Eigel declares in a generic AI-generated voice, rubbing his palms in glee.
“Property taxes have risen by 300 percent over the past 20 years and I just tell people there’s nothing I can do about it!” a grinning Steve Ehlmann replies.
Near the end of the ad, Law himself appears — also as an AI-approximation, with a stock text-to-speech voice — to declare that “we need a fresh start.”
Per First Alert, Law says the noxious campaign ad was inspired by a similar AI-generated smearjob by conservative reality TV star-turned Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt. Those ads take a similar tone, painting a sloppified Pratt as a superhero, and his opponent as a cartoon villain.
These are far from the only examples. Back in May, similar deepfake attack ads emerged in the race between incumbent Republican congressman Thomas Massie and the Trump-backed candidate Ed Gallrein. Unlike the local races in Missouri and California, both candidates were the targets of AI commercials, which were funded by independent PACs, rather than the candidates directly.
In Massie’s case, AI deepfake ads depicted the long-time representative in fake CCTV footage checking into a hotel with progressive Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, declaring “Thomas Massie caught in a throuple!”
During the race, Massie raged that “it’s always the losing campaign that does the crazy crap,” adding that it’s “frankly an insult to older voters who don’t know that AI exists,” Louisville Public Media reported.
Unfortunately for Massie, the ads — not to mention the Trump endorsement — appear to have worked out in Gallrein’s favor, as the challenger triumphed with 54 percent of the vote.
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