Deepfake Political Ads Are ‘Wild West’ for Campaign Lawyers

Political lawyers are gearing up for a contentious election cycle featuring a new generation of attack ads—AI-assisted and largely unregulated deepfake clips of their clients.

Lack of federal regulation, limited litigation strategies, and potential action from the Federal Election Commission are creating a volatile legal landscape for political lawyers, who are anticipating an onslaught of sophisticated AI-generated video or audio clips of a client doing or saying something that never happened.

It’s the “Wild West,” Caleb Burns, a lawyer at Wiley Rein that works for the Republican Party, warns his clients.

Some of these deceptive videos have already hit voters’ ...