A new ad from Ron DeSantis:

Donald Trump became a household name by FIRING countless people *on television*

But when it came to Fauci... pic.twitter.com/7Lxwf75NQm

— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) June 5, 2023

It is good to see that readers and Twitter attempted to correct this. The images remain, however, and what about other social media? This is just the beginning:

DeSantis's campaign is using fake AI-generated images of Trump and Fauci hugging.

This is not an ideal development.https://t.co/kh9VN8AiM4

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) June 8, 2023

As the Huffington Post noted:

The ad marks a troubling advancement in the use of AI in political campaigning: a deliberate attempt to blur reality. https://t.co/CuvrbME1ah

— HuffPost Politics (@HuffPostPol) June 8, 2023

And this is not the first AI ad in this election cycle. Here is an AI-generated ad from the Republican National Committee in April after Biden announced that he would be running for reelection:

This is a scary development; these are not the laughable and unsophisticated Photoshops that were a part of Wes Virginia elections in recent years. (See here and here for examples.) No, these AI ads are much more sophisticated. And they are just getting started.