AI Is Changing How Politics Is Practiced in America

The American Prospect ^ | October 10, 2025 | Nathan Sanders, Bruce Schneier

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Here’s what to expect in the midterm elections.

Two years ago, Americans anxious about the forthcoming 2024 presidential election were considering the malevolent force of an election influencer: artificial intelligence. Over the past several years, we have seen plenty of warning signs from elections worldwide demonstrating how AI can be used to propagate misinformation and alter the political landscape, whether by trolls on social media, foreign influencers, or even a street magician.

AI is poised to play a more volatile role than ever before in America’s next federal election in 2026. We can already see how different groups of political actors are approaching AI. Professional campaigners are using AI to accelerate the traditional tactics of electioneering; organizers are using it to reinvent how movements are built; and citizens are using it both to express themselves and amplify their side’s messaging. Because there are so few rules, and so little prospect of regulatory action, around AI’s role in politics, there is no oversight of these activities, and no safeguards against the dramatic potential impacts for our democracy.

The Campaigners

Campaigners—messengers, ad buyers, fundraisers, and strategists—are focused on efficiency and optimization. To them, AI is a way to augment or even replace expensive humans who traditionally perform tasks like personalizing emails, texting donation solicitations, and deciding what platforms and audiences to target.

This is an incremental evolution of the computerization of campaigning that has been underway for decades. For example, the progressive campaign infrastructure group Tech for Campaigns claims it used AI in the 2024 cycle to reduce the time spent drafting fundraising solicitations by one-third. If AI is working well here, you won’t notice the difference between an annoying campaign solicitation written by a human...

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TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS:

[Opinionated Blowhard]

AI is poised to play a more volatile role than ever before in America’s next federal election

Is it going to tell voters to commit suicide or tell them to vote for Hitler?

[ComputerGuy]

Lies will be more difficult to detect.

[Does so]

Yesterday, I asked Google the weights between two similar cars. The first answer was clearly wrong.

I asked again and got the right answer.

[ComputerGuy]

You probably weren’t holding your mouth right the first time.

[Openurmind]

It will be used to create a false reality and brainwash. Narratives will be censored. Real history will be scrubbed off the net by the Gigabytes per second. It is already happening now...

[butlerweave]

AI is a Virus

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Today I mentioned the CBS documentary “The Wall Within” and how they had not done their basic research before, or even after, it aired.

One of my employees used some AI to search for it and somehow it just did not come up. I used DuckDuckGo and found it in about 30 seconds.

The past is being erased by AI because, if you can not find it, it didn't happen.

[DFG]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/opinion/ai-destruction-technology-future.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sU8.zjkz.yALollEkogUa&smid=url-share

[larryjohnson]

I am sure Free Republic Will be the last and never to use AI.
I don’t understand AI and never want near it,them they
Larry
One month recovering from pneumonia

[packrat35]

Every day I google search the price of silver. The AI summary is always wrong and not even close.

Once I click on a link, I get the real price.

[packrat35]

AI is fun for some things. I asked AI on Facebook to show me pictures of cats juggling pumpkins. I got many cute pictures.

[lee martell]

“Scroll, but verify!”

[larryjohnson]

Thanks for NYT but I still don’t get it they them.

[SmokingJoe]

Grok:

Yes, there is a CBS documentary titled The Wall Within, which aired as part of the CBS Reports series on June 2, 1988. Directed by Paul R. Fine and Holly Fine, and hosted by Dan Rather, it explores the enduring psychological impact of the Vietnam War on veterans, focusing on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The film features intimate interviews with veterans grappling with guilt, nightmares, alienation, and suicidal thoughts, portraying the war’s “invisible wounds” as an internal barrier to healing and societal reintegration. It’s praised for its empathetic, non-sensationalized approach, serving as a cathartic examination of national reckoning with the conflict’s aftermath. The one-hour special won acclaim, including a Peabody Award, for reviving in-depth TV journalism on veterans’ issues. While it shares its title with Steve Mason’s 1984 poem, the documentary does not directly reference or feature the work. If you’re looking for footage, clips may be available via archives like Vimeo.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

You notice there is no mention of the fact that it was proven to be 80% fake.

[Does so]

Two somewhat different cars.

All I did was swap the cars in the query.