Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Audio By Carbonatix
Attorney General Ken Paxton released a new Senate campaign ad Friday morning that depicts Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and incumbent Sen. John Cornyn dancing with grins across their faces.
Clad in cowboy boots, the pair two-step together in what appears to be a Billy Bob’s-type honky tonk. A minute later, in business attire, they do a swing dance in the Senate. The “Washington Waltz” takes place in front of the U.S. Capitol, with dreamy music playing as swaying lawmakers surround them.
None of this, of course, ever happened. The ad was created with artificial intelligence, inspired by interviews with Crockett and Cornyn about their partnership in Washington.
“I think she’s been very approachable,” Cornyn told the Texas Tribune for a 2024 profile on the freshman congresswoman. “It’s not easy to get things done or bills passed in either of the two houses, especially if you don’t have a dance partner. So I offered to be her dance partner.”
The attack ad is the latest entry in the saga of Paxton and Cornyn’s beef, with Paxton seeming to imply that Cornyn’s record on bipartisanship and his association with Crockett make him a lacking Republican candidate. (Cornyn is one of three incumbent Republican senators who have yet to be endorsed by President Donald Trump, despite his sworn allegiance to the president.)
We have a hard time believing that anyone could watch this ad and fail to recognize the use of AI to manipulate the scenarios depicted. To put it as the kids would: it’s slop. But if someone did find themselves confused, the disclaimer that artificial intelligence was used to fabricate the videos is easy to miss: white text in size 2.5 font, scrawled across the screen in the ad’s final seconds.
It’s more than Paxton was required to do at all.
Last year, the Texas House passed a bill filed by former House Speaker Dade Phelan that would require disclaimers in political ads that use AI. The bill sparked debate, with some lawmakers worried that the penalties would infringe on free political speech or be challenged in court.
Other lawmakers, though, stressed the need for regulation in the AI industry. While Paxton’s ad is one of the most AI-influenced political videos we’ve seen, the doctored images and videos have been slowly but surely making their way into conversations, even on the local political level; take the Mansfield House Rep., who used AI to announce his campaign’s yard signs were available, for instance.
”If you don’t think a deceptive ad can change one vote, you’re mistaken. A deceptive ad could change 366 votes very easily,” Phelan said on the House floor.
While HB 366 passed through the House, it failed to even get assigned to a committee in the Senate, the chamber controlled by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Perhaps a coincidence, the contentious relationship between Patrick and Phelan stems in part from disagreements over the impeachment of one Ken Paxton.
