'Dangerous' AI ads raise alarms ahead of midterms
By: Haley BeMiller
USA Today Network - Ohio
COLUMBUS, OHIO - A video from the Ohio Republican Party showed former Vice President Kamala Harris on a game show with Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for governor.
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Spoiler alert: That never happened. It was AI-generated content intended to mock Action's past comments. and it won't be the last time Ohioans see deep-fakes on the campaign trail.
..... Experts say artificial intelligence is exploding in the political sphere as technology becomes more sophisticated. Generative AI in particular - which allows suers to cerate text, photos, video and audio - is opening doors for campings and other groups that want to find efficiencies and save money.
..... But it's also sparked debate over the role of AI in elections and whether it will help or hurt democracy.
..... "Things like playing aorta with the boundaries of misleading content, things like borderline facilely depreciating your opponents or trying to emotionally appeal to or manipulate people while technically following regulations, I don't think these are things that political campaigns should be lauded for," said Danial Schiff, co-director of the governance and Responsible AL Lab at Purdue University.
..... AI in politics is not a new phenomenon.
..... Schiff's organization has been tracking examples since 2016. In 2024, for example, Donald Trump Jr. shared an AI image of his father riding a large cat, gun in hand, with the caption, "Save our Pets!!!!" The post was a reference to false, viral claims about the Haitian immigrant population in Springfield, Ohio.
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Still, AI has accelerated with the advent of ChatGPT and other tools that make it easy and accessible for anyone to cerate content. Many of these photos and videos are created by everyday people, but it's becoming more common for political actors to give it a try.
..... Our party leadership gave us room to innovate, and we ran with it," said Nick Johnson, content and communications director for the Ohio Republican Party. "I'm proud to lead that effort every single day. We are confidentiality outpacing Ohio Democrats 6-to-1 on content production, and every ounce of that output is aimed at one thing: winning in November." [2026]Schiff said another common tactic is using voice manipulation to depict politicians, which can be persuasive to voters - real or not.
..... "This content influences people," Schill said. "It draws on their emotions. It can affect their views."
..... As campaigns experiment with advancing technology, Ohio lawmakers are debating how to regulate it.
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House bill 185 would require disclaimers in political ads that use deep-fakes, including information about the entity behind the content. State representative Adam Mathcan, said AI will inevitably become part of campaigns, but voters deserve to know deserve to know what's real and what's not.
..... "People need to know if those videos or pictures actually happened so they can make informed decisions on the reality around them." said Matthews, who co-sponsored the legislation.
..... Twenty-seven other states require political groups to disclose AI, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, while Minnesota and Texas ban deep-fakes when an election gets closer, Laws generally don't go further because of free speech concerns, although there's some debate about whether AI is liable for defamation.
..... But campaign regulations can't stop random social media users from sharing AI content that affects political discourse.