AI Summary
5 min readThe rise of political slopaganda
This past weekend at a podcast festival, a stranger approached Sean Ramaswamy and called him "Vivek Ramaswamy." The mix-up was understandable but uncomfortable — Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio, had just released an attack ad against his opponent that was so personal and lurid that it gave "just about everyone in this country, except JD Vance, the ick." The ad, which Ramaswamy declined to repeat the details of, was part of a much larger trend: the 2026 midterms are on track to be the most expensive election ever, and the first midterms to eclipse the previous presidential cycle in spending. Most of that money is going to ads — and a surprising slice of it is going to ads made by artificial intelligence.
What is political slopaganda?
Scott Babwah Brennan, director of the Center for Technology Policy at NYU, has been tracking AI-generated political content this cycle. He expected the story to be about deepfakes — realistic but fake videos designed to deceive. Instead, he found something more common and stranger: what he calls "political slopaganda."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Host's Personal Anecdote & Episode Setup** - Host Sean Ramaswamy recounts being mistaken for Vivek Ramaswamy at a podcast festival, which leads into a discussion of a gross attack ad by the Ohio gubernatorial candidate.
- 2 (02:15) **Introducing "Political Slopaganda"** - Scott Babwah Brennan (NYU) defines the new phenomenon of non-deceptive, AI-generated political content.
- 3 (05:08) **The Scale of AI Ad Spending** - The Wesleyan Media Project estimates $137 million has been spent on AI-generated ads, a huge sum but a drop in the bucket of the $11 billion total.
- 4 (05:53) **What is the Message of Slopaganda?** - The host questions whether these ads have any actual policy message or are just vibes.
- 5 (08:07) **The Partisan Divide in Slopaganda** - The host asks if the phenomenon is exclusively Republican, and Brennan confirms it is heavily skewed that way.
- 6 (09:10) **Voter Reaction and Potential Backfire** - The host asks how voters are reacting to these ads, and Brennan shares early, cautious data.
- 7 (11:09) **Looking Ahead: Should We Worry?** - Brennan gives a surprising take: he is not that concerned about slopaganda itself.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
The first midterms to feature AI slop ads are also on track to be the most expensive ever.
This episode was produced by Danielle Hewitt with help from Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by David Tatasciore, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
A person holds a smartphone displaying President Donald Trump's Truth Social post featuring an AI-generated video of him interacting with a tiger, while a laptop screen in the background shows footage circulated on social media of William Chapman being attacked by a tiger at Britain's Yorkshire Wildlife Park, on October 14, 2026 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images.
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