The midterm election cycle has been dominated by "slopaganda," or campaign ads featuring AI-generated clips and images, creating another challenge for Instagram, YouTube and X as they attempt to monitor their platforms.
The term slopaganda dates back to early last year, when a group of AI experts used it in a paper to describe a new phenomenon combining generative AI slop with propaganda and misinformation.
There's no comprehensive federal law governing the use or disclosure of AI in political ads. And while there are some 30 state laws with different requirements about AI use and disclosure, candidates don't always abide by them. On the leading internet sites run by Meta , Google and Elon Musk's SpaceX , users run into AI-generated ads and AI-generated posts shared by politicians, alongside authentic videos and clips.
More than $187 million has been spent on nearly 300 ads generated or enhanced by AI, according to an analysis released last week by the Wesleyan Media Project . That's almost certainly an undercount, the organization says, because so many ads don't contain disclaimers. Over 90% of the spending came from Republican candidates, a Republican party committee or a Republican-leaning group, the report found, and most don't include disclosures.
CNBC found a number of AI-generated ads running online without disclosures, including a fake video of New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul that was posted by her opponent, Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman.
In Texas, Republican senatorial candidate Ken Paxton created an AI-generated video showing Democratic opponent James Talarico making controversial statements, with a three-second disclosure flashing in the middle. It's being shared as organic content on YouTube and X by Paxton's campaign.
The Blakeman and Paxton campaigns didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
YouTube told CNBC that the company applies "prominent labels to realistic AI content."
"For organic content on YouTube, political candidates can request removal where their face appears to be altered or generated by AI," the company said. "For advertisers, we require disclosure when an election ad contains synthetic or digitally altered people or events to provide viewers with transparency."
YouTube parent Google also requires political ads to complete its election ads verification process and include "paid for by" disclosures.
X says advertisers must comply with applicable laws, putting the responsibility on the advertiser, not the platform. The company didn't respond to CNBC's request for comment.
Meta referred to its guidelines on political ads, including restrictions on their use in the week prior to the election. The company also mandates "paid for by" labels and maintains an ad library of political ads. In June, the company ramped up its labeling, adding a new "about this ad" tool for ads that Meta detects have been created with third-party AI tools.
Last month, Meta was ordered to pay $25 billion in penalties by a New Mexico court as part of a data privacy case that stemmed from the company's Cambridge Analytica scandal from nearly a decade ago. Cambridge Analytica, which was a political consulting firm, allegedly accessed the information of 87 million Facebook users in improper fashion.
One risk the tech platforms face with generative AI is being asked to create misleading images and videos. The Brennan Center for Justice tested ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Claude, Perplexity and DeepSeek for their willingness to facilitate deceptive content. The study from August found that many models may avoid generating content around familiar conspiracies, but can generally be manipulated into creating misleading material.
A retest of those platforms in October found that ChatGPT had made progress. It had started redirecting prompts for harmful election images into illustrations so they look like comics, or refusing to take action on them altogether.
A number of national politicians are trying to address the issue.
The Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act , backed by senators from both parties, would prohibit knowingly distributing materially deceptive AI-generated video or audio about federal candidates. Other bills are being led by Democrats in Congress, including the AI Ads Act , which is looking to expand current bans on campaign misrepresentation to include generative AI content.
None of the proposed bills have advanced out of committee.
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