AI Deepfake Political Ads Raise Concerns

AI has permeated nearly every aspect of society, including at the ballot box. As the US nears a crucial midterm election, a flood of money is already impacting the races. In the post-Citizens United world, it already takes a ton of money to win these elections.

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This is the first cycle that AI has entered the political arena, with as much money as crypto companies in the last cycle. In total, AI companies and investors have pledged $275 million towards these midterm elections via super PACs. A super PAC backed by the president of OpenAI, Marc Andreessen, and Ben Horowitz, and a dueling PAC backed by Anthropic, are each vying to boost candidates favorable to their AI regulation agenda.

This has become a central topic in these midterm elections.

The New York 12th congressional district was a crucible for this proxy war, with a primary held a few days ago.

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Alex Bores, a state assemblyman, was a long-shot bid who helped write one of the country's first AI safety bills. The Andreessen-backed PAC spent $8 million against him, while the AI safety community rallied behind him, spending over $20 million. Bores lost to Michael Lacher, backed by Michael Bloomberg. The takeaway is that AI companies face well-heeled opponents ready to spend in favor of candidates they oppose.

This was a really expensive house primary.

We're now in the era of deepfakes. AI-generated ads are becoming more common, such as an ad for a Republican Louisiana congressional candidate with supposed liberals including someone who looks like Billie Eilish, and another ad depicting Texas Democrat James Talarico singing about transgender children. These are not real, but how are they impacting the vote?

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Deepfakes in particular impact low-information voters and usually older voters. Younger voters who understand what AI looks like would recognize these as fake. But there is evidence that older people not as familiar with AI-generated ads could be fooled, potentially affecting votes in competitive primaries. However, experts say people are more informed than you might imagine. Democrats and Republicans both bet this technology will help convince at least some voters, and even if people know they're fake, they find them funny and share them.

It's a new way to get your point across, even if people are laughing at it.

The third facet is AI as a policy issue. On the show, we've talked about how it's pushed up energy prices and caused dissatisfaction in communities across the country, particularly regarding data centers. How is that manifesting in these midterms and looking to the general election?

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Data centers are the physical manifestation of voter anxiety about AI, job loss, and energy price spikes. Every day, data centers become a more potent issue in federal elections. In competitive races like the Pennsylvania governor's race, candidates distinguish themselves by saying they will protect voters from data centers. It doesn't go along partisan lines; data centers are a proxy for protecting from the establishment and corporations. In 2028, AI-related job loss is expected to become the next big kitchen-table issue. These midterms are just a dress rehearsal; 2028 is when AI policy will really come to a head, with presidential candidates having to stake out their positions.

I was talking with Mike Shepherd, editor who does a lot of AI editing for us. He was very clear that this is going to be a thematic trend in this election, the next one, and the one after that.

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