OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Voters are increasingly forced to question what's real in political advertising as artificial intelligence becomes cheaper and more accessible — and regulation lags behind.
More than 20 campaigns in Nebraska and Iowa were contacted for this story, including candidates running for local, state and congressional offices. Many did not respond when asked about their AI policy — even after multiple attempts over three months.
The ones that did respond offered a range of answers.
Meg Mandy, a spokesperson for the Tony Vargas campaign, said the campaign does not use AI in any advertising.
Brinker Harding's campaign offered this:
"AI is a tool, and like any tool, it should be used to improve efficiency, not to cut corners or deceive."
But the question of where the line is — and who enforces it — remains largely unanswered.
Regulation has stalled
The Federal Communications Commission proposed disclosure rules for the use of AI in political ads, but there has been no activity on that proposed rule for nearly two years.
In Nebraska, State Senator John Cavanaugh introduced LB 1203 two years ago. The bill did not target the use of AI directly, but would have required transparency. It never made it to the floor.
Voters are noticing
Michael Hrupek received political mailers he recognized as photoshopped.
"It isn't just a Republican-Demo... It's just they're the ones that are doing it. And it's deceptive," Hrupek said.
He wanted to learn more about artifical intelligence.
"I've done a whole bunch of AI deep dive on political campaigns such as what they're doing here. And a lot of it is the technique that they use," Hrupek said.
He describes it as getting to a line without crossing it.
In the Los Angeles mayoral race, a video created by a filmmaker was reposted by a candidate. The video was openly fabricated — but its spread illustrated how AI-generated or manipulated content can move through political spaces and be embraced for entertainment value.
A former candidate's perspective
Christian Espinosa Torres ran for Douglas County Treasurer and says artificial intelligence helped his campaign handle the basics — things like captions and video quality — that money would have otherwise covered.
"How could we overcome the lack of money we didn't have to make sure that the videos were correct? The captions were correct? That the things we're publishing was correct?" Espinosa Torres said.
But he draws a clear line at using AI to generate voices or videos, or to deceive voters.
"Right now, I'm very concerned about the elderly, especially me, that I'm past 40s. I cannot tell sometimes what is AI or not," Espinosa Torres said.
'Seeing is no longer believing'
Alon Yamin co-founded Copyleaks, a platform that performs more than 30 million content scans a month and can detect manipulated material. He is a national voice on AI detection.
"Unfortunately, seeing is no longer believing. AI changed everything, and it changed it across content types. It started with text, then images and now videos and audios," Yamin said.
He says AI has fundamentally lowered the barrier to entry for political campaigns — for better and for worse.
"It's so accessible. So easy to use and also so cheap. You need to remember that campaigns used to be very, very expensive. Now, the bar is very low. These platforms are very cheap and also very fast," Yamin said.
3 News Now's Mary Nelson contacted more than 20 campaigns for this story. Notable responses were included in this article. These campaigns did not respond:
- Gov. Jim Pillen, Candidate for Governor, Nebraska
- Lynne Walz, Candidate for Governor, Nebraska
- Pete Ricketts, U.S. Senate, Nebraska
- Dan Osborn, U.S. Senate, Nebraska
- Cindy Burbank, U.S. Senate, Nebraska
- Denise Powell, U.S. House, Nebraska District 2
- Scott Petersen, Secretary of State, Nebraska
- Sarah Slattery, Secretary of State, Nebraska
- Don Kleine, Douglas County Attorney
- Makayla Danner, Douglas County Attorney
- Joe Hunter, Papillion Mayor
- Bob Stubbe, Papillion Mayor
- Randy Feenstra, Candidate for Governor, Iowa
- Rob Sand, Candidate for Governor, Iowa
- Josh Turek, U.S. Senate, Iowa
- Ashley Hinson, U.S. Senate, Iowa
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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