R Street Institute
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AI and the 2024 Election Series: Introduction

by Chris McIsaac
Nov 25, 2024
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issues: Artificial Intelligence, Electoral Reform, Federal Government Affairs, Governance, Technology and Innovation

The 2024 election is officially in the rearview mirror and this year’s contests were notable both for the things that happened and the things that didn’t. At the presidential level, the campaign was chock-full of unprecedented and unexpected events, culminating in Donald J. Trump becoming just the second president in history elected to serve a non-consecutive second term in the White House. Meanwhile, widespread disruptions to the election from artificial intelligence (AI)-generated deepfakes or threats of political violence did not materialize to the extent many had originally feared.

The relatively minor role that AI played is notable given the extensive level of concern and attention it generated among lawmakers, the media, and the American public in the months leading up to the November election. Widely available and increasingly powerful generative AI tools that can quickly and cheaply create highly realistic but false images, video, and audio drove fears that the technology would be used to unleash an overwhelming onslaught of election misinformation. Under this scenario, the torrent of false claims would have poisoned the entire election information environment, leaving voters with no way to distinguish between fact and fiction and ultimately eroding public trust in American democracy.

While there are clear examples of AI being used throughout the 2024 election, the worst-case scenario did not come to fruition. However, the possibility prompted policymakers across the country to act. Twenty states now have laws regulating the use of AI in certain election communications while members of Congress introduced but did not pass legislation to enact similar restrictions in federal elections. Meanwhile, agencies like the Federal Election Commission and Federal Communications Commission considered how existing regulatory authorities could be applied to the use of AI in elections.

Most of the policy changes were considered just months before the elections and targeted problems that were largely hypothetical given that 2024 was the first presidential election held since generative AI became widely available to the public. Now that America has successfully navigated the nation’s first AI election, future policy debates around what to do about AI in elections can be grounded in what actually happened.

This series will help inform future policy discussions by providing an update on the steps state policymakers took to regulate the use of AI in elections leading up to November 2024. Subsequent posts will review the federal government response to AI concerns, evaluate the factors that contributed to AI being less disruptive than originally feared—including whether the new policies played a role—and conclude by outlining key policy considerations for lawmakers seeking additional regulations of AI in election communications moving forward.

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