The November midterm elections will be the first national election in which generative artificial intelligence is cheap, convincing, and carried in everyone’s pocket. The concerns being discussed are not hypothetical.

The Los Angeles County’s registrar has reported that AI was used during California’s June primary to manipulate publicly available footage of ballot counting to gin up fraud claims, and researchers warn that fabricated audio and video are far more persuasive than a bare assertion. Election officials now worry less about a fake candidate ad than about fake evidence, manufactured proof for whatever conspiracy theory is trending on election night.

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Those concerns are legitimate, and taking them seriously is exactly why the kneejerk reflexes now sweeping statehouses — that is, to define then ban the technology — should be resisted. Thirty-one states have enacted election deepfake laws, and the midterm elections will test them all. Many will fail, either in practice or in court, because they aim at the wrong target.

Start with the practical problem. Artificial........

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