Summary:
- The Republican National Committee (RNC) released a 30-second political ad that uses AI-generated imagery.
- The ad envisions a dystopian future during a second term of President Biden, with images of an “emboldened” China invading Taiwan, financial markets in free fall, and an overrun U.S. border with “illegals.”
- The ad is likely to become more common as AI technology proliferates, with campaigns testing out the tools to enhance speeches, fundraising pitches, and other messaging.
- The ad represents the most explicit use of AI technology for political messaging to date.
- The Democratic National Committee criticized the ad, saying the GOP “can’t argue with President Biden’s results.”
- Some GOP ad makers and operatives criticized the ad’s reliance on fake imagery.
- AI-generated media is most effective when convincing visuals are not available, but this ad could have been done without AI.
- Ethically, the ad “walks a very fine line” in framing the AI-generated scenes as hypothetical, with some experts suggesting the disclosure could have been more prominent.