{"slug": "ai-makes-political-cheap-shots-cheap", "title": "AI Makes Political Cheap Shots Cheap", "summary": "Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman is using AI-generated satirical ads depicting Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul in false scenarios, defending them as humor amid complaints from Democrats, according to the New York Post. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that 31 states have regulations on AI in political campaigns, most with satire and parody exceptions, while federal bills remain unenacted. AI ads are cheaper than traditional ones and favored by dark money PACs, raising concerns about misinformation and voter suppression.", "body_md": "Politicians are using AI to channel their inner Stephen Colbert by creating ads that lean heavily on satire and parody to work around restrictions on AI-generated deepfake use in critical midterm election campaigns.\n\n“Everybody knows it’s AI and it’s funny—so what’s your problem? Get a life!” said Republican Bruce Blakeman, a candidate for governor of New York seen by most as a long shot, reports the New York Post.\n\nBlakeman was responding to Democrat complaints about a series of ads depicting current Governor Kathy Hochul robbing a bank, enabling drug dealers and gambling with taxpayer funds. All of the ads depict scenarios that are false, and some, but not all, of the ads have an AI disclosure statement at the end. Blakeman’s ads are mainly produced by AI content creator Walter Shub, who uses prompts to create AI political satire ads for conservative and pro-Israeli audiences, says the New York Post.\n\nAccording to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 31 states have regulations on the use of AI in political campaigns in elections. Most have exceptions for the use of satire and parody. However, the rules are not necessarily uniform across the board. In Tennessee, for example, state law regulates local elections but ignores federal contests. Meanwhile, at the federal level, bills seeking to regulate AI use in political campaigns have not been enacted by Congress thus far.\n\nWhile mudslinging has long been a staple of political campaigns, AI’s appeal may be that the technology is relatively cheap when compared to the cost of more traditional campaign ads, notes the political news website Axios, so it is unlikely to disappear. AI-generated ads also are a favorite tool of “dark money” political action committees (PACs) of uncertain origin. In one such MAGA PAC deepfake used in Kentucky, one Republican attacked another male candidate with fake AI-created black & white video resembling hotel security footage suggesting a non-existent “throuple” relationship with a pair of female liberal Democrats.\n\nDisparaging AI ads, aka “synthetic media,” are employed by both major political parties. Examples include deepfake videos created by the National Republican Senatorial Committee attacking Chuck Schumer and James Talarico, Democrats from New York and Texas, respectively. Not every AI-generated ad is a guarantee of success: Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett was accused of using AI to enhance crowd size images but lost her nomination bid to fellow Democrat Talarico in March.\n\nOf growing concern is the use of sophisticated AI chatbots that coordinate campaign misinformation without human oversight, automatically generating social media content with slight differences so each individual post looks more authentically human. Studies indicate that most people have trouble identifying fake content from real material. One goal may be to just make politics look so ugly that it reduces voter turnout, a tactic mostly utilized by the Republican Party in past elections as lower voter participation often runs to its advantage.\n\nWhether AI use in the political sphere generates clarity or confusion– or simply a less mean-spirited definition of satire and parody—remains to be seen. AI political ads also may have unintended consequences if they remind voters of hot button issues like AI data centers that face increasing opposition. Sometimes the mud comes straight back.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-makes-political-cheap-shots-cheap", "canonical_source": "https://techstrong.ai/articles/ai-makes-political-cheap-shots-cheap/", "published_at": "2026-08-13 20:48:37+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-13 20:56:30.864089+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai", "ai-policy", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Bruce Blakeman", "Kathy Hochul", "Walter Shub", "National Conference of State Legislatures", "Axios", "National Republican Senatorial Committee", "Chuck Schumer", "Jasmine Crockett"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-makes-political-cheap-shots-cheap", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-makes-political-cheap-shots-cheap.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-makes-political-cheap-shots-cheap.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/ai-makes-political-cheap-shots-cheap.jsonld"}}