Researchers track $80 million in AI-made political ads in 2026 midterms

In short: Researchers tracking 2026 midterm ads found about $80 million spent on political ads that used AI, with most of that spending tied to Republican sponsors.

What's going on

Researchers who track political advertising say they have counted nearly 170 ads in the 2026 US midterm cycle that were AI-made or AI-enhanced. They tie those ads to about $80 million in spending. These numbers reflect what the researchers were able to track, not every ad running in the country.

In the researchers’ dataset, Republican candidates and aligned groups accounted for roughly 80% of the tracked AI-related ads and about 83% of the spending. Democratic sponsors accounted for about 11% of the ads and about 14% of the spending. The rest came from other sponsors, including issue-focused groups.

The ads range from small touch-ups to more deceptive content. Some use AI for subtle visual changes or to add AI-generated crowds (like using digital extras in a movie scene). Others use “deepfakes,” which are fabricated videos made to look real, showing politicians doing or saying things that never happened.

Disclosure is uneven. Across 35 states included in the tracking, only 31% of the ads said they used AI, and those ads represented 22% of the spending. A separate poll found that 56% of people said they had seen Republicans use AI ads and 49% said they had seen Democrats use AI ads, but that measures what people remember seeing, not the actual ad volume.

What to watch

These findings do not show that AI ads changed election results. Still, the mix of realistic fake clips and inconsistent labeling raises a basic question for voters and regulators: when you see a political video, will it be clear whether it is real, edited, or entirely computer-made?

Source: NYTimes