Bowdoin College
10/07/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 10/07/2026 09:33
Michael Franz Has Been Tracking AI-Generated Political Ads—and There Are a Lot of Them
Michael Franz, Bowdoin's DeAlva Stanwood Alexander Professor of Government, has been tracking the use of AI in these ads as part of his research with the Wesleyan Media Project, of which he is a co-director.
"What we found has surprised us: AI use spans from hyperrealistic deepfakes to subtle enhancements," writes Franz and his co-authors in the piece "We've Tracked $80M of Spending on Almost 170 AI-Generated Political Ads This Year-It's Weird," written for The Conversation and picked up by numerous news outlets including Fast Company, Fortune, and Salon.
Other findings include a partisan gap in who is most likely to use AI in their ads and the fact that regulation of AI in advertising depends on inconsistent state legislation.
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