Welcome to the AI election where your eyes lie to you

Texas Senate nominee Ken Paxton recently released a realistic campaign ad targeting Democratic nominee James Talarico that used an AI-generated Talarico to deliver some of his most controversial statements. The synthetic Talarico combined and repackaged remarks Talarico had made about biological sex, God and Christianity, sometimes stripping them of their original context. The ad was based on real remarks, but it altered some of Talarico's wording while using an AI-generated version of him to deliver them. Politicians have long made it hard to trust their words. Now, AI-generated campaign ads flooding the airwaves and social media are making it harder to trust your own eyes and ears.