{"id":6805,"date":"2026-08-14T19:07:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T19:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6805"},"modified":"2026-08-14T19:07:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T19:07:28","slug":"ai-generated-content-is-flooding-political-campaigns-california-lawmakers-are-trying-to-regulate-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=6805","title":{"rendered":"AI-generated content is flooding political campaigns. California lawmakers are trying to regulate it"},"content":{"rendered":"

A political ad released last month depicts Gov. Gavin Newsom operating a robotic Democratic Party machine that chooses former Health Secretary Xavier Becerra as the next governor.<\/p>

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Newsom explains to his would-be successor that the machine was \u201ccreated to make sure that nothing ever changes\u201d \u2014 as long as Becerra \u201csubmit(s) to the machine,\u201d he doesn\u2019t have to do anything.<\/p>\n

Becerra grins, telling Newsom, \u201cI can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ad, which was released by Steve Hilton, Becerra\u2019s Republican rival in the November governor\u2019s election, includes a disclaimer at the end of the video, which runs for more than two minutes, that it was \u201cgenerated or substantially altered using artificial intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s among the many AI-generated campaign ads that have begun flooding social media ahead of the 2026 midterms.\u00a0While Hilton has been clear that his ad is more in the style of satire, some AI-generated ads, particularly deepfakes, are designed to mislead, raising concerns among some California lawmakers about the spread of political disinformation that could deceive voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cFraudulent AI advertising has already proliferated in races across the country, and if Congress does not act, this runaway challenge will only get worse as AI becomes increasingly capable of blurring the lines between fact and fiction,\u201d said U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff in a news release as he and Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna last month reintroduced the AI Ads Act in Congress.<\/p>\n

Schiff\u2019s bill updates an existing election law already on the books that prohibits fraudulent political ads, amending it so that it also includes content generated by AI. A video on his YouTube channel includes clips from Hilton\u2019s ad as examples of the proliferation of AI-generated campaign ads. Other examples included an ad with AI-generated video of Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie holding hands and dining with Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Ilhan Omar, and another in which an AI-generated likeness of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul tells viewers to \u201cKeep it unsafe and unaffordable with Kathy Hochul.\u201d<\/p>

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The bill only applies to federal elections and the recourse for fraudulent political AI ads would be to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission.<\/p>\n

Proponents of using AI-generated content in campaigns contend that it\u2019s political speech protected by the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

Hector Barajas, a spokesperson for Hilton\u2019s campaign, said in a statement that they opted to launch an ad generated by AI because it\u2019s \u201cone of the most powerful creative tools available today.\u201d When asked whether the former Fox News host supported restrictions on the use of \u201cdeepfakes\u201d in political ads, Barajas said they support transparency and that \u201cthere\u2019s an important distinction between innovation and deception.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greater concern today isn\u2019t campaigns that openly disclose what they\u2019ve created,\u201d Barajas said. \u201cIt\u2019s anonymous actors using AI to spread misinformation without accountability. That\u2019s where transparency and disclosure matter most.\u201d<\/p>

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But critics argue that many of these ads are purposefully created to be deceptive \u2014 especially deepfakes that seek to use someone else\u2019s likeness and put words in their mouth. As AI models advance, they worry it could produce even more realistic content that is increasingly hard to distinguish from what is real.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to make us distrust everyone and everything,\u201d Ramesh Srinivasan, a professor of information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, said about AI-generated political ads. \u201cBoth are sledgehammers to democracy because you have to have not just a common basis of understanding of reality or what the truth is, but you also have to have some basic notion of trust in what you see.\u201d<\/p>\n

California has tried to prepare for this moment, passing a slate of laws in recent years aimed at regulating deepfakes that use AI-generated images or videos to depict people saying or doing something they didn\u2019t. State law also requires campaign ads to disclose whether they are made with AI. An AI-generated video aiming to boost Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt ahead of the June primary by portraying him as Batman and his rival, Mayor Karen Bass, as the Joker raised alarms for some lawmakers earlier this year who worried it ran afoul of the state law by not disclosing that it was made with AI.<\/p>\n