Advertising
The AI attack-ad nightmare is coming true
Axios
“Four states have laws prohibiting certain uses of AI-generated deepfakes in political ads, while 27 more require some form of disclosure about their use. No federal law specifically regulates AI-generated political ads.”
$137 Million in A.I.-Generated Ads Flood the Midterms
New York Times
“A.I.-generated videos have quickly become an alternative to stock footage that once dominated campaign ads — video, for example, of families furrowing their brows over a stack of bills at a dining table. A.I. can create such scenes instantly and for a fraction of the cost, without viewers even noticing that anything was fabricated.”
Campaigns
MAGA Inc. Unleashes Millions to Turn Out Republicans At the Polls
New York Times
“A public database of online advertising maintained by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, shows that 100 percent of the ad spending from Mr. Trump’s super PAC is targeting these custom audiences, which the Trump team provided to the platform.”
Moore campaign challenges anti-Question 3 ad, alleges deepfake law violation
Baltimore Sun
“Moore’s lawyers allege that the ad uses his likeness in a way that falsely suggests he opposes Question 3. They also contend that the ad violates Maryland’s law governing election-related deepfakes and say they referred the matter to the State Board of Elections.”
Content
The manosphere stars who helped Trump win are losing their shine
Axios
“A September working paper from the NYU Center for Social Media, AI and Politics found that podcast exposure did not necessarily cause Trump’s gains among young men. Researchers, who reviewed 36,659 podcast episodes from 2024 alongside two survey datasets, found podcasts explained only a small portion of the widening youth gender gap.”
The Wall Street Journal’s new AI tool, “Doppler,” forecasts the issues that will shape the midterm elections
Nieman Lab
“Rather than using AI-generated summaries to generate leads or help beat reporters monitor online content more efficiently, the Journal uses Doppler to conduct large-scale AI analyses quickly — and publishes those insights for readers.”
Social Media
Two out of five Americans regularly get their news on Facebook
Nieman Lab
“The platform is most popular for women (47%), Hispanic Americans (51%), Americans with a high school diploma or less (46%), and Republicans (43%).”
Technology
Voters think politicians don’t listen. Could AI help?
Fast Company
“According to Swing Left’s most recent data, only about 29% of the campaigns Ground Truth targeted are fully utilizing and acting on the data volunteers are collecting. About 40% say they lack the capacity to fully implement the program, and 5% declined outright to work with Ground Truth.”
If You Don’t Have a Wikipedia Strategy, You Don’t Have an AI Content Strategy
Will Robinson and Tim Chambers
“An answer that cited the candidate’s correct Wikipedia article was about 50 percent less likely to contain a biographical error. An answer citing the campaign’s own website was about 40 percent less likely.”
AI and the Midterms: Three Layers Shaping What Voters Know
Katie Harbath
“The chatbots cited pink slime in 48% of responses. In only one of 168 responses did the chatbot note that the source was partisan.”