AI ads flood campaign trail despite growing data center outrage, ‘doomsday’ warnings

Ads shaped by artificial intelligence are everywhere on the campaign trail, even as AI data centers become a major midterm issue and a potential liability for Republican candidates. 

In the Texas Senate race, Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s campaign put out a new ad earlier this month depicting his Democratic opponent James Talarico as scribbling in a Bible with crayon — even as Paxton appears to take a tougher stance on AI infrastructure.

“Have y’all seen these AI deepfakes they’re making of me? They don’t have any real attacks, so they’re firing up their data centers and making up fake ones,” Talarico said on social media. 

And in Georgia last week, Republican Senate hopeful Rep. Mike Collins and Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff clashed over an ad that included cartoonish, AI-generated images of the senator getting spa treatments. 

The political ads, mostly pro-Republican, are among at least 164 that have been generated or enhanced by AI this year according to a new Wesleyan Media Project report — highlighting a midterm contrast between the rising use of the technology and growing voter concern about the rapid build-out of data centers.

Michael Franz, a government and legal studies professor at Bowdoin College and co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, said there’s “a bit of an irony” given candidates in both parties are opposing data centers as many of their campaigns utilize the technology powered by the facilities.

“The data centers are what generate the AI stuff that people are using,” Franz explained. “They’re relying in a sense on these data centers to generate these materials for their ads but at the same time they might be telling voters that they don’t want data centers in their own constituency.”

Candidates up and down the ballot — as well as groups that support them — have turned to AI technology to help generate attack ads and snag viral social media posts as control of Congress hangs in the balance this fall. Per Franz, 80 percent of these are from Republican candidates or GOP groups.

An AI-altered image of Michigan Republican Mike Rogers went viral amid his Senate campaign, posted by a former GOP congressional aide. A pro-Trump PAC issued a pro-Paxton ad this........

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