Wisconsin. to spend $423 million on
campaign ads in Wisconsin this year, with $60 million in ads
for the presidential race alone reserved for airtime between now
and Election Day, we may be used to attack ads stretching the
truth or twisting facts, but a new concern comes with the
growing use of artificial intelligence, or AI to create an
entirely new false reality. Here and now, senior political
reporter Zach Schultz has the story.
connoisseur of watch just about any local newscast in Wisconsin.
And when the station cuts to break, many of the commercials
will be campaign ads. Thanks a lot, Khaba.
>> Politico will occupy a large percentage of our available
inventory between now and the election, and have, for many
months. manager of Wbay-tv in Green Bay
in a purple state, campaign ads are the best way to reach the
last few voters who haven't already made up their minds.
>> Well, let's be honest, the majority of the public is
already decided the way that they're going to vote, and these
ads are just over that little really undecideds in the middle.
>> Most of the controversies over campaign ads come when one
side demands their opponent retract an ad due to
inaccuracies or technicalities. Lavin says TV stations have
lawyers to deal with those issues.
because number one, I would rather the other side. If
there's falsehoods in an ad, the other side has every bit of
right to actually answer those by buying more ads, right?
>> A new concern over ads has to do with the growing use of
artificial intelligence, or AI, to generate images that look
real. Earlier this year, the legislature passed a bill that
requires any campaign ad using AI to include that information.
>> Any time they're using any type of AI, they're supposed to
disclose it. $1,000 penalty, but that penalty
would be paid by the group running the ad. An amendment to
the bill made sure broadcasters are not liable if AI is used and
not disclosed. >> There is a bit of
responsibility on the side of the broadcasters, but it's also
extremely hard to police. >> Mike Wagner is a professor of
journalism at the University of Wisconsin who has studied the
use of AI in political speech. >> How can they know for sure
the video was AI generated? How can they know for sure the
script was AI generated? >> Lavin says so far, there's no
evidence of any AI in campaign ads.
place, I have not seen or heard an ad that has used that
disclaimer yet. So either it's if it's being used, nobody's
disclosing it or they've determined that that the
penalties are so high that they're just not going to use AI
to determine it. >> I think the real danger with
AI in this election is not in campaign advertisements. It's in
social media posts that go viral.
of this using AI as a boogeyman. >> So something happens in the
other side says, oh, that must be. I can't possibly be real.
>> In August, Kamala Harris held a rally at an airport hangar in
Detroit, Michigan. Donald Trump falsely claimed photos of the
event used AI to make the crowd look bigger.
>> I spoke at that rally. I spoke to all 15,000 of those
people. They are real. >> Garlin Gilchrist is
Michigan's lieutenant governor. about that crowd that he had to
find a way to try to delegitimize it. And so by
and saying it was artificial intelligence to think that's all
he knows how to do is play on people's fears.
>> Wagner says beyond making AI a boogeyman, there's another way
I can be abused. >> The other is that a candidate
picks up on a post that uses AI and treats it as true, which has
also happened where a former President Trump shared
information that Taylor Swift had endorsed him, which she had
not. have affected the race for
president. Taylor Swift later endorsed Kamala Harris. When we
fight, we win. Who has proven her large crowds are real?
>> What a crowd. You know, Donald Trump says Democrats can
only have large crowds because of AI.
>> I wasn't even involved in the biggest lie of the campaign so
far. >> They're eating the dogs.
>> When Donald Trump falsely claimed Haitian immigrants were
stealing pets and eating them in Springfield, Ohio, the source of
the misinformation was a Facebook post. No AI involved at
all. >> So when these kinds of things
happen to especially when the candidates themselves pick it up
and share it, those things are going to take on a life of their
own in really remarkable and fast ways that are hard to
regulate. misinformation are the same as
the audience for campaign ads, low information voters who are
paying attention at the last minute are often susceptible to
the messages because they're new to them.
attention to the race, and these to misinformation.
is the same as it's always been. >> There is so much
disinformation out there, could be in these campaigns,
could be spreading, spreading disinformation. I think it's up
to the individual voter to determine what's actually the
truth. Zach Schultz for "Here& Now"
>> Despite a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling in July that says
absentee drop boxes are fully legal, they still remain a point
of contention. Since then, some local clerks around the state
have decided they will not allow their residents to use an
absentee ballot drop box for the November election, saying they
are not secure but one city mayor took matters into his own
hands. This week, donning a hardhat and workers gloves,
Wausau Mayor Doug Denney wheeled the city's only drop box away
from its position outside city Hall, but not before posing for
pictures to, quote, memorialize the event. Denney now faces a
legal investigation as he is not an election official, and this
was not a decision approved by was not a decision approved by