Ethics Commission Weighs Options to Regulate AI in Election Ads

The last time the governor and most other Oklahoma statewide offices were on the ballot in 2022, attack advertisements required editing skills.

These days, with the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, political campaigns and outside groups can generate compromising images of opposing candidates with a simple prompt. Oklahoma voters encountered that in May, when an outside group released an AI-modified advertisement showing Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei cozying up to Hillary Clinton.

Oklahoma doesn’t regulate AI in political advertising, whether by requiring disclosure or penalizing deceptive material. But officials are weighing their options.