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Political campaigns in Texas and other states utilized AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic media to misrepresent opponents' views and influence voters, prompting legal complaints and concerns over election integrity.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's campaign posted purportedly AI-generated videos depicting his opponent, state legislator Vikki Goodwin. She alleged the videos falsely portrayed her tax positions and were intended to deceive voters and harm her candidacy. Goodwin filed a police complaint, and the posts were later removed. Patrick's campaign called the videos a parody and denied violating election law.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to conduct large-scale disinformation campaigns, malicious surveillance, or targeted and sophisticated automated censorship and propaganda, with the aim of manipulating political processes, public opinion, and behavior.
Also classified as
The AI ads misrepresented the political views of candidates, falsely depicting them saying things they did not say.
The AI systems generated highly realistic but false videos of candidates to mislead voters.
The incident involves political campaigns using AI-generated deepfakes to conduct targeted disinformation and influence campaigns aimed at manipulating public opinion and election outcomes.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
The risk was caused by the intentional decisions of human political campaigns to create and distribute deceptive deepfake advertisements after the AI models were deployed.
Added categories peak at 4: Severe (Epistemic Harm, Inferred)
Political campaigns in multiple US states utilized generative AI to create highly realistic deepfakes of opponents, aiming to mislead voters. This represents a substantial threat to democratic integrity and information security, signaling an evolved capability in domestic election interference.
The AI systems were used as tools by political campaigns to generate synthetic video and audio of candidates based on direct inputs and scripts. The reports describe campaigns 'firing up their data centers' and using AI to 'make up fake' ads, indicating the AI functioned as a deterministic content generation tool.
Limited Risk: The report describes the use of AI-generated content such as deepfakes, which under the EU AI Act are subject to transparency obligations to ensure users are informed they are interacting with or viewing AI-generated media.
The primary function of the AI systems in these incidents was to generate highly realistic deepfake videos and synthetic voices of political candidates to depict them saying and doing things they did not actually do.
The reports provide clear, consistent, and detailed accounts of multiple political campaigns using AI-generated deepfakes to target opponents. The facts regarding the creation of the ads, the candidates targeted, the public reactions, and the legal complaints are well-documented across multiple reputable news sources.
The ads could be interpreted as protected political parody/satire rather than malicious disinformation campaigns.
Technology
Generative AI Deepfake Tools
Allows quick, inexpensive creation of highly lifelike, misleading ads.
Lack of Built-in Watermarks
AI tools lack robust, mandatory indicators to easily identify synthetic media.
Data Inputs
Unauthorized Candidate Likeness
Using real candidates' voices and faces to train or generate fake footage.
Unauthorized Trademark Use
Using university logos and symbols without authorization in AI generation.
Human Factors
Intent to Mislead Voters
Campaigns deliberately using AI to put false words in opponents' mouths.
Voter Susceptibility to Deepfakes
Voters struggle to distinguish lifelike AI-generated ads from real footage.
Process and Methods
Inadequate Platform Moderation
Social media platforms lack proactive filtering to detect and block deepfakes.
Absence of AI Disclosures
Campaigns publishing synthetic media without clear, prominent labeling.
Management
Prioritizing Engagement Over Ethics
Campaign managers use deceptive AI to break through noise and win elections.
Exploiting Legal Loopholes
Timing ad releases outside the 30-day window to evade legal penalties.
Regulatory Environment
Lack of Federal AI Regulation
No federal laws govern the use of deceptive AI in political campaigns.
Flawed State Deepfake Laws
Texas law has a narrow 30-day window and hard-to-prove intent requirements.
Failed Legislative Updates
Bills to close regulatory loopholes failed due to free speech objections.
