The AI attack-ad nightmare is coming true

Axios · 10/19/2026, 9:35:04 AM

AI is producing reality-bending midterm ads about defaced Bibles, upscale dinners and a board game with a "Death to America" playing card. Why it matters: The warnings about deepfakes are coming true. Election laws haven't kept pace with a world where campaigns can put words in opponents' mouths and create realistic-looking scenes that didn't happen. The Wesleyan Media Project found $137 million had been spent on 220 AI-generated ads through Oct. 11, mostly from Republicans. 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. The big picture: An Axios analysis found numerous political ads partly or fully made by generative AI, sometimes undisclosed. Georgia Senate: Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Republicans, has run a series of AI-generated deepfake ads depicting Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff getting beauty treatments. The ads mock Ossoff's reported campaign spending on hair and makeup , saying he "talks pretty" but has "an ugly record" and "a lot to cover up." Ossoff said in a C-SPAN interview : "It is deeply troubling to see ... deepfake videos used to fabricate political advertising. And it's a s lippery slope toward the destruction of truth in political debate, and the ad should come down immediately." The ads don't disclose AI use, which Georgia law doesn't require. Michigan Senate: A super PAC called Front Line Action used AI in an ad depicting Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed in a fabricated family photo with podcaster Hasan Piker and four women wearing niqabs. Another AI-generated scene has El-Sayed playing a Risk-style board game with his half-sister , Eman Abdelhadi, and Piker. It depicts cards bearing statements that include "Death to America," "Do not Celebrate Thanksgiving" and "Celebrate 9/11." The group has defended the ad, telling CNN it is "grounded in El-Saye