Republicans have used A. I.-generated content more often than Democrats, ranging from subtle enhancements to convincing deepfakes. Candidates and political action groups, mostly tied to Republicans, have rushed to adopt the technology, spending more than $137 million to promote such ads this year, the researchers found.
More than 80 percent of the ads were produced by Republican campaigns or Republican-aligned political action committees. Using A. I. has allowed them to make their opponents appear alongside polarizing figures in the Democratic Party, such as Hillary Clinton or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Yet some ads have gone much further. One ad showed an A. I.-generated version of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Michigan, laughing at cards that read “Death to America” and “Celebrate 9/11.” Only 31 percent of the ads the group reviewed disclosed that they used A.
I. “It’s the year of the A. I. election,” said Fred N. Davis III, the founder of Strategic ...
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing