{
  "id": 15653223,
  "title": "Political Candidates Spending An Obscene Amount of Money on AI-Generated Election Slop",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/19/political-candidates-spending-an-obscene-amount-of-money-on-ai",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-19T20:40:46.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Futurism",
    "slug": "futurism",
    "url": "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/political-candidates-spending-money-ai-generated-election-slop"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Political campaigns are increasingly pouring a fortune into AI-generated election ads, according to recent reporting. The New York Times revealed that such ads have generated over $137 million in promotional revenue alone in the current election cycle, accounting for nearly a quarter of total spending on midterm political advertising. This spending, totaling $565 million across all US House and Senate campaigns, has seen 220 AI-generated ads produced by political action groups thus far. Republican groups have been the primary drivers, producing 80% of these AI ads, while Democrats have contributed the remaining 20%.\n\nAn example of this trend comes from Make Oklahoma Great Again, a Republican political action committee (PAC), which spent over $200,000 on TV time for an AI-generated commercial featuring a Republican gubernatorial candidate disparaging Hillary Clinton and portraying a disgruntled Donald Trump. Notably, the PAC invested heavily in promoting this AI ad, illustrating the extent to which political spending on this technology has escalated.\n\nErika Franklin Fowler, a professor of government and co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, expressed surprise at the rapid adoption of AI in political campaigns. She highlighted the difficulty in detecting AI-generated content in ads, as some viewers might not even realize the involvement of artificial intelligence based solely on the ad's presentation.",
  "summary": "\"I think what we're seeing with AI has surprised even us.\" The post Political Candidates Spending An Obscene Amount of Money on AI-Generated Election Slop appeared first on Futurism .",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}