$187 Million Floods Midterms With AI-Generated Political Ads
New analysis reveals the scale of synthetic media in the 2026 election cycle, exposing gaps in federal and state disclosure rules.
By Julia Wang ·
Political advertisers spent more than $187 million on nearly 300 artificial intelligence-generated or enhanced ads during the current midterm cycle. The Wesleyan Media Project released an analysis of this spending last week, noting that the figure is likely an undercount. The organization stated that many digital spots lack required disclaimers, making the total difficult to track.
The report indicates that over 90% of the money came from Republican candidates, party committees, or Republican-aligned groups. Most of these expenditures did not include disclosures identifying the use of synthetic media. This surge in AI content, often called slopaganda, has created monitoring challenges for major internet platforms.
The term slopaganda originated in a paper written by AI experts in early 2025. The group used the phrase to describe the combination of generative AI slop with propaganda and misinformation. As the phenomenon grows, users on Instagram, YouTube, and X encounter AI-generated posts and ads alongside authentic videos from politicians.
Regulatory frameworks remain fragmented. No comprehensive federal law governs the use or disclosure of AI in political ads. Approximately 30 state laws exist, but they vary in their requirements. Candidates do not always abide by these state rules, leaving voters to navigate a mix of real and synthetic media.
CNBC identified specific examples of AI-generated ads running online without proper disclosures. One instance involves a fake video of New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul. The clip was posted by her Republican challenger, Bruce Blakeman. In Texas, Republican senatorial candidate Ken Paxton released an AI-generated video of Democratic opponent James Talarico. The video showed Talarico making controversial statements. A three-second disclosure flashed in the middle of the clip, which Paxton’s campaign shares as organic content on YouTube and X.
Platform policies vary in their approach to synthetic media. YouTube stated that it applies prominent labels to realistic AI content. The company allows political candidates to request the removal of organic content where their face appears altered or generated by AI. For advertisers, YouTube requires disclosure when an election ad contains synthetic or digitally altered people or events. Google, YouTube’s parent company, also mandates that political ads complete its election ads verification process and include paid for by disclosures.
X places the responsibility for compliance with applicable laws on advertisers rather than the platform itself. Meta points to its guidelines for political ads, which include restrictions on usage in the week before an election. The company mandates paid for by labels and maintains an ad library. In June, Meta added a new about this ad tool for ads it detects were created with third-party AI tools.
The issue of AI in politics intersects with ongoing legal battles. Last month, a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $25 billion in penalties. This ruling stems from a data privacy case related to the Cambridge Analytica scandal from nearly a decade ago. Cambridge Analytica allegedly accessed the information of 87 million Facebook users improperly. The Brennan Center for Justice tested six major AI models in August for their willingness to facilitate deceptive content. The study found that while some models avoid familiar conspiracies, they can generally be manipulated into creating misleading material.
A retest in October showed that ChatGPT had made progress in this area. The model began redirecting prompts for harmful election images into illustrations that look like comics. It also started refusing to take action on some of these requests entirely. In Congress, the Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act, backed by senators from both parties, would prohibit knowingly distributing materially deceptive AI-generated video or audio about federal candidates.
Democrats in Congress are leading other efforts, including the AI Ads Act. This bill seeks to expand current bans on campaign misrepresentation to include generative AI content. None of the proposed bills have advanced out of committee.
