The AI Campaign
Gubernatorial candidates JB Pritzker, Darren Bailey, and Collin Corbett. (ChatGPT illustration)
Artificial Intelligence-produced campaign ads have begun making waves around the country, specifically in the Los Angeles Mayoral race earlier this month and the increasingly hostile Texas Senate race.
While A.I. generated content hasn’t hit the airwaves in Illinois yet, numerous A.I. graphics and illustrations have begun circulating around the race for governor.
All of the content, so far, appears to come from the campaign of Republican Darren Bailey or his supporters. The images typically lambast Governor JB Pritzker, mocking Pritzker being forced to move out of the Governor’s Mansion, mocking him as a king, or as an evil oligarch. The images are often posted to either Bailey’s social media pages or that of his running mate, Aaron Del Mar. The campaign, or its supporters, have also begun circulating A.I. generated images attempting to tie Independent candidate Collin Corbett to Pritzker. Del Mar recently claimed, without proof, that Corbett is being paid off by the Pritzker campaign. (Disclosure: Corbett is a longtime friend and is treated like every other candidate.)
The Bailey campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Illinoize.
Pritzker campaign spokesman Alex Gough responded to Bailey’s A.I. usage, referring to the content as “slop,” a term used for low-quality A.I. content.
“The best way to highlight Governor Pritzker’s record over the past seven years is to uplift the voices of real Illinoisans telling real stories about how the governor has improved their lives. We believe that is more compelling than Darren Bailey’s AI slop videos,” Gough said. “When it comes to reminding voters about Darren’s record, we don’t need to put made up words in his mouth. We’re running against an opponent who has a very extreme record and has been consistently outspoken about that record for years. The most effective thing that we can do is tell the truth: Darren Bailey remains too extreme for Illinois.”
Pritzker said he supports more regulation of A.I. generated content in campaigns.
“I think, at a minimum, we should be watermarking any ad, whether it’s online or on television, and it should say ‘this is produced by AI’ or something like that so people know this isn’t real,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference Monday. “At a minimum, they oughta be marked as ‘this is false information.” And maybe it’ll deter people from putting it up.”
Legislative efforts to regulate A.I. content did not advance in the General Assembly this spring.
As for Corbett’s campaign, which is expected to overcome a petition challenge from Bailey’s running mate, Del Mar, his campaign says it does not use any A.I. content.
“Our campaign is proud to feature work by actual humans,” a Corbett spokesman said Monday. “Our messaging and content are all written by the candidate, policy experts, and communications staff. All our visuals, including graphics and videos, are created by creative professionals, from graphic designers to videographers to directors. We are a campaign by working people for working people.”
The Corbett campaign says the candidate supports banning the use of deepfakes, videos that are manipulated to show a person saying or doing something that never happened. Corbett also supports mandatory disclosures of A.I. generated content.
“It’s being used more and more. Frankly, it’s deteriorating the political environment, if you ask me,” Pritzker said.
But Bailey’s use of A.I. content may be running afoul with the Illinois State Board of Elections. ISBE spokesman Matt Dietrich said Illinois law does not differentiate campaign content created with or without A.I., and all require proper disclosures of who paid for the content. (Paid for by Bailey for Illinois, for instance.) Those disclosures do not appear on the Bailey campaign images.
Numerous A.I. detection websites show Bailey’s “Blueprint for Illinois” agenda was largely written by A.I.
