US prepares for first election battle with new AI tools

AI-powered Republican ad depicts a bleak future if Biden wins election

AI becomes key battlefield in presidential election in the U.S. in 2024, allowing parties to get their message to voters faster, cheaper, and more effectively.

Earlier this week, the Republican National Committee responded to Joe Biden's claim that he was running for re-election with a publicity attack , completely created by artificial intelligence.

The short video featured dystopian images that painted a horrific picture of the Republican vision of the US in the event that Biden won a second term.

There were images and videos of businesses boarded up, San Francisco was shown being overrun by criminals, and 80,000 illegal immigrants crossed the US border.

All this was created by artificial intelligence programs and tools, which have exploded in popularity.

But those on the front lines of the campaign say the Republican ad was likely just a glimpse of what lies ahead.

The use of artificial intelligence in politics is gaining momentum

As a divided Republican camp turned against Biden in 2024, Democratic strategist Martin Kurucz, who runs Sterling Data, believes artificial intelligence will be a vital tool for political fundraising.

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&#34 ;We are much more able to use AI to create messages and target the right people" he told The Telegraph.

"This leads to more donations. A big-pocket campaign has structural advantages. In every single cycle of the campaign, there is a moment when the participants leave the states that are the battlefield."

Although Republicans have struck the first blow in the campaign, Democrats are generally much more advanced users of AI technology, he said.

We must remember that if you are competitive in larger states than your competitor, then you have a big structural advantage.»

>»If AI changes the unit economics of campaigning and the scalability of outreach, that's very important.»

Screenshot of an AI-generated Republican Party announcement. John Fetterman in Pennsylvania and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez in New York.

Republican strategist Tab Berg, however, is more cautious about the impact of new technology on the 2024 race.

“He still is in its infancy. I think it will have some impact, but it is not yet mature enough to have a significant effect.

“The advantage of using AI for fundraising emails is that it customizes the message by collecting and extracting specific data about donors.

“With the help of a chatbot on websites, artificial intelligence creates a dialogue. People think they're talking to the campaign, but it's actually a bot.»

The future use of AI in US politics may be more subtle and even more persuasive than the NRC's efforts.

“There wasn’t much that could be done with the existing footage, but it was faster and cheaper to get weird stuff with AI,” Christopher Galdieri, professor of political science at St. Anselm’s College, told The Telegraph.

“It’s there, and people will start using it. The question is, is it doing something that is different from what traditional media campaigns have been doing, or improving on what campaigns have been doing for years?

“Theoretically, artificial intelligence could target individual voters much more more specifically than campaigns 10 or 15 years ago. But whether it will be effective is an open question.”

There are several varieties of AI

AI is already in use It is said to have played a key role in Glenn Youngkin's victory in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election helping him fine-tune his message to better allay voter fears.

Numinar Analytics played a key role in Mr. Junkin's triumph, much of the work being done using AI.

«There are many various types of AI. The type we're working on uses machine learning to build models that predict candidate preferences, yield preference and likely turnout,” Will Long, founder of the company, told The Telegraph.

does, it allows the campaign to adapt its strategy to the reality on the ground. This allows them to learn from the electorate where they are in the race and what the problems are.»

In short, he said: «It means we can use AI to create a whole campaign.»