That's not Kathy Hochul. AI campaign ads are going too far. | Opinion

In a recent campaign ad against Kathy Hochul, the Democratic New York governor is shown welcoming undocumented immigrants into a luxury hotel, walking through a park filled with sleeping unhoused people and smiling with mega donors at a fancy dinner.

In one of the final moments of the ad, Hochul talks about how the state "ended cash bail so that we could stop punishing people who commit brutal crimes against our fellow New Yorkers, like this nice young man."

"Want some crack?" a tattooed man behind her asks outside a New York City police precinct.

At the end of the ad, the campaign slogan "Criminals, Cronies, and Illegal Immigrants for Hochul" flashes across the screen. The words under it are the most important part, yet easy to miss.

"Paid for by Blakeman for New York," the screen reads. "This video includes AI-generated imagery."

Nothing shown in the campaign ad is real. Not the hotel, the park, the clinic caring for sex workers or the man offering Hochul crack. This isn't even Hochul – it's a version of her created by artificial intelligence, a computer-generated doppelganger speaking in a hyperbolic fashion to benefit the governor's Republican opponent in the November election – Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.

"Well, I use every tool available," Blakeman told PIX11, defending his use of artificial intelligence. "AI is very good at producing things that people want to watch, entertaining videos on important political issues. Sometimes we use humor and satire, which has been used in politics since George Washington."

AI is popping up in campaign ads across the country. In the Los Angeles mayor's race, an ad for Republican candidate Spencer Pratt showed a group of women in a Pilates class whispering that they would be voting for him (Pratt ultimately lost). In Texas, an AI ad of James Talarico showed the Democratic Senate candidate dressed as Maria from "The Sound of Music" singing a version of "My Favorite Things" about the transgender community.

Aside from the offensive things being created to disparage Democrats or make Republicans appear to have more support than they might have, the use of AI is something that should concern all American voters.

AI, deepfakes distort the truth – in politics and beyond

You might be wondering what the big deal is with using AI – an increasingly common tool – to generate campaign ads.

As artificial intelligence improves, we will have a harder time identifying what's real and what's fake. Research has shown we're not as good at identifying AI images as we might expect. When there's only a label at the end of the video, like the one from Blakeman's campaign, it's easy for people to miss and assume that the video of Hochul talking like a Republican's caricature of a Democrat is actually real.

There's also the fact that AI is being used to distort the truth – something that Republicans who have used the tool have defended as free political speech, but it certainly enters a murky legal area.

Finally, it's concerning that AI is being used to generate images that are morally questionable – at times even veering into racist territory.

In the 2025 New York City mayoral race, Zohran Mamdani was depicted by the Andrew Cuomo campaign as eating rice with his hands. President Donald Trump once used a video depicting former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, as apes.

Since AI is nonhuman and therefore does not have a gauge of what is appropriate, it falls on politicians to determine what's appropriate to publish – and we all know what a disaster that can be.

We need government intervention and AI regulation

I gave up the hope that politicians gunning for reelection, regardless of political party, would have some kind of moral backbone a long time ago. While it seems as though Republicans are the ones creating more egregiously offensive content with artificial intelligence, it's only a matter of time before Democrats are forced to participate.

The only solution to this problem is for the government to regulate the use of AI in political advertisements. Businesses are not going to regulate themselves when they're making money off these advertisements.

While I would be surprised if anyone could believe this video of Hochul to be real, I'm sure there are some people who do. While we can do everything possible to educate the public on how to spot deepfakes, the real solution has to be in regulation.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on Bluesky: @sarapequeno.bsky.social

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: That's not Kathy Hochul. AI campaign ads are going too far. | Opinion

Reporting by Sara Pequeño, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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This story was originally published July 15, 2026 at 1:31 AM.