Campaign ad utilizes artificial intelligence, raise questions about 2026 impact

It’s a local campaign ad that has drawn national attention. It’s simple — with just three direct-to-camera testimonials.

But all the people in the ad are fake — created, as one character in the video indicated, by artificial intelligence prompts. 

“We weren’t trying to deceive anybody that these were real hired actors or that they were real people, we were very much consciously using the fakeness of the medium in order to highlight a political problem and to weaponise it for a political message,” explained Kim Varet in an interview with Spectrum News. 

Kim Varet, an art dealer, is running in the Democratic primary in California’s 40th congressional district to try to unseat Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., next fall. The ad, Kim Varet said, was an opportunity to “troll our opponent,” and came together quickly after a Memorial Day weekend road trip with her family.

“While we were driving, my husband said you know, there’s this new technology that has come out that everybody’s talking about. He’s like, ‘What do you think about making an ad with that?’” she recalled. “We stopped over for lunch with our two kids, and during lunch Joseph [Kim Varet’s husband] went silent for like half an hour and he wrote and made this video in 30 minutes.” 

The ability to pump out an ad so quickly and with a phone or laptop, Kim Varet pointed out, means voters will likely see more campaign ads created with AI in the near future.

“I’m sure a lot of people will use it because, especially because of its potential to level the playing field with younger candidates that don’t have half a million dollars from corporate PACs to spend on an ad,” said Kim Varet. “How wonderful is that, in a sense, if you could level the playing field for young candidates? Because — that would have cost me half a million dollars, not 30 minutes on the phone.”

And while Kim Varet’s ad has garnered national attention for its ingenuity — it also raises the question: how will AI impact the 2026 election?

“The models that we’re seeing right now are able to create content that is incredibly persuasive, and incredibly hard to detect as AI generated. It’s impossible to predict just how corrosive this will be to political discourse in this country,” said Annette Zimmerman, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “It’s just not feasible for ordinary citizens to do a ton of extra research on which content is actually legitimate.” 

Congress, so far, has done little to actually regulate artificial intelligence. A bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced the Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act, but the bill has yet to gain any traction.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. is one of the sponsors of that bill. He said that Congress should act not only to protect voters from being duped by AI but also to protect them from having their image and likeness used by artificial intelligence.

“Congress has got to put guardrails in place right now and give every normal person — every average American out there who’s just working a job and take care of their family — the right to protect their name, image and likeness. I like to say if it’s good enough for college athletes, it ought to be good enough for working people,” Hawley said. 

“What’s happening now is AI is taking all that stuff, and they’re not paying anybody for it. They’re not asking your permission to take it. They’re tracking you around the web,” he continued. “They’re tracking your kids and taking your kid’s pictures. They’re not asking if they could do that. We need to give every single Missourian and American the right to say, no, no, this is mine. And if you want it, you’ve got to ask me, pay me or otherwise get my consent.”

President Donald Trump’s tax agenda, which he and Congressional Republicans have nicknamed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” would actually restrict states from regulating Artificial Intelligence for 10 years. That has angered some Republicans who voted for the bill unaware of the provision, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

“I am adamantly OPPOSED to this, and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there. We have no idea what AI will be capable of in the next 10 years and giving it free rein and tying states hands is potentially dangerous,” Greene wrote in a post on X. “This needs to be stripped out in the Senate.”

In 2024, there was a bipartisan task force on AI that called for a framework of recommendations, but Congress has yet to create one.

Zimmerman called the lack of federal framework to regulate AI “one of the worst things to happen for American consumer rights protections in this country ever.”

“Having states try to regulate in this space, even in a piecemeal way, already goes a little bit in the right direction, in the sense that having a total regulatory vacuum is worse for regular American Citizens than anything else,” she explained.

Kim Varet acknowledged she can’t predict how other candidates will use AI, but admitted she isn’t “sure if you will see another AI ad that will be as self conscious of what it is from here on out.” She told Spectrum News she believes how candidates choose to use AI and disclose its use may say more about them than anything else.

“History has told me that legislation does not work at the speed of technology evolving, and we will be grappling with these issues for a long time until we make a decision in Congress to make it a priority. It has not been,” she said. “It will come down to the individual’s willingness and the individual’s intentions behind the use of the tool.”

We reached out to Rep. Young Kim’s campaign for comment on the ad, but our request went unanswered.