AI deepfakes blur reality in 2026 US midterm campaigns
U.S. Senate candidate for Texas, James Talarico, speaks during his primary election night party in Austin in early March . Photo by Joel Angel Juarez / REUTERS
Reuters
As the video opens, Democratic Texas State Representative James Talarico appears to stand in front of a Texas flag, beaming.
"Radicalized white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country," the U.S. Senate candidate seems to say into the camera. As a voice whispers "white men," Talarico continues: "So true. So true."
But Talarico never filmed that video. Instead, the clip is an AI-generated ad from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the party's Senate campaign arm, featuring a computer-altered Talarico reciting social media posts he wrote years ago. The words "AI generated" show up in easy-to-miss font in the lower righthand corner.
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