This fear of misleading AI-generated content in TV ads and direct mail campaigns is real. The President of the American Association of Political Consultants (a Republican) put it this way: "The use of 'deep fake' generative content is a dramatically different and dangerous threat to democracy."
Ominously, the 2024 race may have already been impacted by this phenomenon. The presidential campaign of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently posted a video on TWITTER showing an allegedly fake image of Donald Trump hugging Anthony Fauci. There are currently no federal laws or regulations to require disclaimers on AI-generated content in political ads—and it's unlikely that any such protective legislation and/or regulation will be in place to prevent more widespread misinformation from these sources in the 2024 presidential campaign.
The real question is: will voters be educated enough to discern 'deep fake' AI-generated communications from real content (misleading or otherwise)? Realistically, the idea that the American electorate can be schooled in such a nuanced detection process in the next 17 months is the rosiest or rosy scenarios. Like it not, one of the most consequential presidential elections in our history is likely to be subject to a whole new source of potential misinformation.