As we move further into the digital age, artificial intelligence will rapidly change the landscape of political campaigning. Generative AI is quickly maturing and will revolutionize content creation by enabling faster, more compelling ads that used to require dedicated teams to make. AI-powered ad distribution is optimizing ad placements, ensuring that political messages reach the right audiences at their most persuadable moments. AI-driven personalization and chatbots allow campaigns to create targeted messaging for individual voters, adapting their strategies according to the unique characteristics of the audience and the platform they are engaging with.
Content Creation:
- Generative AI will transform the way political ads are created, making them faster and more compelling. AI tools like Midjourney and Dall-E 2 can generate realistic images, apps like play.ht can replicate voices, and deep-fake videos are becoming ever more realistic. The days of anonymous voiceovers may be coming to a close as AI gives ease to Videos that used to take dedicated teams days to draft, shoot, and edit can now be created by a few people with AI tools.
Ad Distribution:
- AI-powered ad algorithms have been in use for years and have already powered prominent campaigns, notably in 2016 with Brexit and President Trump’s path to victory. These algorithms analyze vast amounts of data to optimize ad placement and targeting. This means that political ads can be served to the most relevant audience in the most effective manner. By evaluating user behavior, interests, and demographics, AI can help political campaigns reach the right people at the right time with the right message. This will result in more efficient use of campaign funds and greater ROI.
Chatbots:
- Chatbots have been around for a few years and already power many front-end customer service systems to the chagrin of every stranded air traveler. At the base of OpenAI’s Chat-GPT, Google’s Bard, and Microsoft’s AI-powered Bing search are large language models that mimic the cadence, emotion, and language of users and have access to nearly the entire compendium of the text-based internet. These chatbots are already prevalent on Twitter and Reddit, are tuned to specific keywords and can amplify messages, validate supporters, and sew discord to bring more attention to topics. Adept campaigns will be able to train a large language model on their talking points and utilize it on voters to persuade them to vote a certain way.
Voter Outreach Personalization:
- AI has the potential to revolutionize direct voter outreach by enabling personalized interactions at scale. By analyzing individual voter data, AI can help campaigns understand their audience better, tailoring messaging to the specific needs and concerns of each voter. AI can analyze different user segments and social media platforms to create customized content for each audience. Political campaigns will be able to better adapt their messaging and strategy based on the unique characteristics of the target audience and the platform they are engaging with. For example, a campaign might create many different versions of an ad tailored to young voters on TikTok and older voters on Facebook.
More Americans get their news from social media every year and the average user’s attention span continues to decrease, we can expect fake news to run rampant as AI gives creators the tools to make narratives up out of thin air and pair them with life-like imagery. This viral AI-created photo of the Pope strolling in a stylish jacket is just the beginning.
There are still a lot of unknowns for the 2024 election, will the economy hold strong, will Biden or Trump have a health scare, school shootings and the increasingly unstable weather. Generative AI will allow campaigns to create believable audio-visual content and distribute it to the voters likely to be most affected by it. Candidates often describe their vision for the wonderful future under their leadership or the disastrous potential of their opponent. This election cycle, they will be able to sh
