Lies, damned lies and AI: the newest way to influence elections may be here to stay | US politics

TNew York’s mayoral election may have been remembered for the remarkable victory of a young democratic socialist, but it was also marked by something that is likely to permeate future elections: the use of AI-generated campaign videos.

Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Zohran Mamdani in last week’s election, took particular interest in sharing deepfake videos of his opponent, including one in which the former governor was accused of racism, in what is a developing area of ​​the election campaign.

AI has already been used in election campaigns, including using algorithms to target certain voters and even, in some cases, to draft policy proposals. But as AI software develops, it is increasingly used to produce sometimes misleading photos and videos.

“I think what really stood out this election cycle was the use of generative AI to produce content aimed directly at voters,” said Alex Bores, a New York state representative who has been at the forefront of introducing laws to regulate the use of AI.

“So whether it was the Cuomo campaign using ChatGPT to generate its housing plan, or Cuomo and many others creating AI-generated video ads for voters, that, I think, seemed very new in the 2025 cycle, or certainly much further than we’ve ever seen before.”

Eric Adams, the incumbent mayor who dropped out of the race in September, used AI to create robocalls to New Yorkers showing him speaking in Mandarin, Urdu and Yiddish, and also produced an AI video showing New York as a seemingly war-torn dystopia to attack Mamdani.

Cuomo, meanwhile, was accused of racism and Islamophobia after his campaign tweeted a video showing a fictionalized version of Mamdani eating rice with his fingers and a black man shoplifting. The ad also featured a black man, wearing a purple shirt and tie and a fur coat and carrying a silver cane, appearing to endorse sex trafficking. The Cuomo campaign later deleted it and said it was sent by accident.

Bores, who is running to represent New York in the House of Representatives, said many AI-generated ads during the last election cycle were “more likely” to “veer into what could be perceived as bigoted territory.”

“I think that’s another thing we need to track: is it either because the algorithms are broadcasting stereotypes that are present in their training data, or [is it] because it’s so easy to manipulate. You don’t have to tell an actor of a certain race to do a certain thing, you just have to change it in the computer,” Bores said.

“You don’t have to tell someone’s face to look a certain way. Does that make it easier for people to spread content that, you know, I really think polite society should frown upon.”

In New York state, campaigns are supposed to label AI ads as such, but some — including the ad released and removed by Cuomo — have not done so. New York’s elections board is responsible for potentially filing charges against campaigns, but Bores noted that campaigns might be willing to bite the bullet if there is a penalty, particularly if a penalty comes after the campaign ends.

“I think there will always be campaigns willing to make that compromise. If they win and then pay a fine, they won’t care, and if they lose, it doesn’t matter,” Bores said. “So we have to try to find an enforcement regime that can stop things quickly before an election, instead of just punishing afterwards. »

Robert Weissman, co-president of the nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen, which has helped pass many AI laws in the United States, said trying to deceive people is now illegal in more than half the states, with campaigns demanding to display warnings on generative AI ads saying they are not real. Still, he said, regulating the use of AI in campaigns remains a pressing issue.

“Lies have been a part of politics since time immemorial. It’s different from lies, and it’s different from saying your opponent said something he didn’t say,” Weissman said.

“When you show someone a seemingly authentic version of someone saying something, it’s very difficult for that person to contradict it and say ‘I never said that,’ because you’re asking people not to believe what they saw with their own eyes.”

Although AI is now capable of generating credible videos, some campaigns have not yet achieved this. A “Zohran Halloween Special” video released by Cuomo – this ad said it was generated by AI – showed an extremely sloppy performance by Mamdani, with out-of-sync audio and an incomprehensible script.

As the midterms and the 2028 presidential election approach, AI-generated political videos are likely here to stay.

They have already been used nationally. Elon Musk shared an AI-generated video of Kamala Harris in July 2024, after she became the de facto Democratic presidential nominee. That video showed Harris saying she was “the ultimate diversity hire” and saying she “knows nothing about running the country.”

Even as states move forward in regulating the use of AI in elections, there appears to be little desire to do so at the federal level.

During the No Kings protests in October, Donald Trump shared an AI video showing him piloting a fighter jet and dropping a brown fluid on Americans, the latest of his video posts about AI.

While Trump appears to approve of this medium, it seems unlikely that Republicans will try to rein in AI in the near future.