AI’s Growing Role in Political Campaigns
AI-powered tools have rapidly become integral to modern political campaigns, streamlining operations and enhancing voter engagement. Campaigns are using AI for tasks such as identifying fundraising audiences, generating written content like advertisements and emails, and analyzing voter behavior to refine their strategies.
For example, during the 2022 midterm elections, campaigns employed AI to optimize fundraising efforts. The Republican National Committee (RNC) provided a striking example of AI’s potential with its April 2023 attack ad targeting President Joe Biden.
Released moments after Biden announced his reelection campaign, the ad used AI-generated imagery to depict a dystopian future under a second Biden-Harris term.
Simulated scenes included explosions in Taiwan, migrants overwhelming the southern border, and police patrolling San Francisco streets. While effective in grabbing attention, this ad also highlighted the ethical dilemmas surrounding AI in politics.
The Ethical and Legal Challenges of AI in Politics
An alarming aspect of AI in political campaigns is its ability to produce hyper-realistic but entirely fabricated content. Deepfakes—AI-generated videos, audio clips, or images that mimic real people—are particularly concerning.
In one notable case ahead of New Hampshire’s January 2024 primary, a political consultant created a robocall featuring an AI-generated voice that sounded like President Biden, urging voters not to participate. The consultant now faces criminal charges for voter suppression.
Deepfakes are not new; manipulated content has been circulating for years. In 2018, a fake video showed Barack Obama insulting Donald Trump, while an altered image from 2004 falsely depicted John Kerry at an anti-war protest with Jane Fonda. However, the rapid advancement of generative AI tools has made creating such content easier and more convincing than ever before.
Legal Gray Areas
The legal landscape surrounding AI-generated political content remains murky. Existing U.S. election laws prohibit fraudulent misrepresentation of candidates but do not explicitly address AI-generated materials. Efforts to regulate deepfakes have faced resistance due to concerns about free speech under the First Amendment.
For instance, Republicans on the Federal Election Commission (FEC) blocked a proposal to extend oversight to AI-created depictions. Meanwhile, Democrats have urged the FEC to crack down on misleading uses of AI, arguing that the technology enables a new level of deception capable of misleading voters on a massive scale.
Internationally, some progress has been made. The European Union’s Digital Services Act imposes transparency requirements on tech platforms and could serve as a model for U.S. regulations. However, without clear federal legislation in the United States, campaigns are left grappling with how to address these challenges independently.
How Campaigns and Tech Companies Are Responding
Recognizing the risks posed by AI-generated disinformation, President Biden’s reelection campaign has taken proactive steps by forming a task force called the “Social Media, AI, Mis/Disinformation (SAID) Legal Advisory Group.” This group is preparing legal strategies to counteract deepfakes and other forms of disinformation by drafting court filings and exploring existing laws that could be applied against deceptive content.
The task force aims to create a “legal toolkit” that can respond swiftly to various scenarios involving misinformation. For example, it is exploring how voter protection laws or even international regulations could be leveraged against malicious actors using AI-generated content.
Legislative Efforts
Lawmakers are beginning to address the issue as well. A bipartisan Senate bill co-sponsored by Amy Klobuchar and Josh Hawley seeks to ban materially deceptive deepfakes related to federal candidates while allowing exceptions for parody or satire. Another proposal would require disclaimers on election ads featuring AI-generated content.
Although progress has been slow, these legislative efforts reflect growing recognition of the need for guardrails around AI in politics.
As AI-generated content becomes more sophisticated and accessible, organizations face many of the same challenges confronting political campaigns. The ability to create convincing but fabricated content poses significant risks to brand reputation, customer trust, and information integrity across all sectors.
Effective responses will likely require a multi-faceted approach combining technical solutions, policy frameworks, and stakeholder education. Detection capabilities remain important but insufficient alone, particularly as generative AI continues to advance. Organizations should consider establishing clear policies regarding the use and disclosure of AI-generated content while building incident response protocols specifically designed for synthetic media threats.
At Clarity, we recognize that protecting against deepfakes requires both technical expertise and organizational preparedness. By analyzing developments in high-profile domains like politics, we continuously refine our detection systems to address emerging techniques that malicious actors might repurpose for attacks against enterprises and institutions.
