Photo: Moment RF
They’ve become more and more common, and you’ve probably seen them on your own phone or TV. Political ads featuring AI-generated, often nearly photorealistic elements, have become a defining feature of the 2026 midterm election cycle so far.
According to the Texas Tribune, they’ve been used by a number of candidates from both sides of the aisle, and experts are warning that this might just be the new norm moving forward.
Political analyst Anthony Russo warned that while they’ve been fairly harmless so far, this could spin out of control quickly. “As fast as AI is improving, if we don’t get a handle on it, our lives are never gonna be the same, our elections are never gonna be the same—and in a negative way,” he explained.
Russo is calling for some form of standard for these AI-generated ads to be created before it’s too late. “We live in a world with free speech; we’re allowed to make jokes,” he said. “But when it is fully created with AI, it needs to be clear to the viewer.”
He also warned that if that standard isn’t created, we could see AI-generated ads full of very convincing but outright malicious lies start to pollute our election cycles.