New Zealand’s National Party Ahead Of The Curve With AI-Generated Campaign Ads

Opposition Party Acknowledges Creating AI Attack Ads

In a recent interview, a spokesperson for New Zealand’s National Party has admitted that they indeed do use artificial intelligence to generate human figures in their attack advertisements. This confirmation came after the party leader, Christopher Luxon, had claimed he had no idea whatsoever if they use AI for their ads.

Speaking to Newshub on 23rd May, Party Leader Christopher Luxon said, “I don’t know about the topic in the sense of I am not sure. You are making an accusation that we are using it, I am not sure that we are. I will need to talk to our team.”

When questioned about an ad that used images of characters similar to the Fast and The Furious cast, Luxon jokingly said it was not okay to ‘diss’ the franchise as “I’ve modeled my look on Vin Diesel.”

There are several other images on the party’s social media pages that have AI-generated image characteristics. Some of the advertisements featured pictures of criminals attacking a jewelry store, two nurses from Pacific islands, and a person who appeared to have been the victim of a crime staring out a window.

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Suspicion rose when people began noticing some issues with the images posted on the page. For example, the two nurses in one image had oddly plasticine skin while the thieves were wearing balaclavas with openings that would not match human features.

After the interview, the National Party, via a spokesperson came out and openly admitted to using AI-generating tools to create the ads. “Yes, we have used AI to create some stock images,” they said.

They termed it as “an innovative way to drive our (their) social media.” They also reiterated that while they do use AI to create attack ads, the party is “committed to using it responsibly”.

AI In Politics So Far

On Monday, an unverified image appeared to show an explosion near the Pentagon and was described by CNN as having “all the signs of being generated by artificial intelligence.” This presents a very big problem since now the capacity to create these kinds of images now lies in the hands of everyone.

Just last month, Republicans launched a vicious attack ad against President Joe Biden and his VP Kamala Harris following their announcement that they would be running for re-election. While attack ads are nothing new in Politics, this was the first one to use completely AI-generated images.

The ad became such a concern that a US lawmaker introduced a bill that requires the disclosure of any AI-generated ads in politics. This concern is about the potential slippery slope that can be seen on the horizon as AI would or will inevitably lead to deep-fakes that are unethical, to say the least.

The UK has also seen the potential effects AI will have on voters if used for campaigns or to generate attack ads. Therefore, experts in the country are pushing for regulations of AI in all fields including political advertising.

“We have elections coming up in the UK and the US and we know that generative AI can produce disinformation on an industrial scale.” These are the words of Prof Michael Wooldridge, director of foundation AI research at the UK’s Alan Turing Institute speaking to The Guardian.