The Pulse
Wesleyan Counts $137 Million in AI-Generated Political Ads
The Wesleyan Media Project counted 220 political ads made at least partly with AI tools, backed by more than $137 million in spending during the 2026 election cycle. Its October 15 analysis says Republican candidates and groups account for
AI.info Team · Written with AI ·
Political ads made at least partly with artificial intelligence have drawn more than $137 million in spending during the 2026 election cycle, according to an October 15 tally by the Wesleyan Media Project. Researchers counted 220 such ads, and say the total is likely low because AI use can be difficult to spot. The figure marks a sharp increase from the less than $50,000 in AI-ad spending the project identified during the 2024 cycle.
Republican sponsors account for 88% of spending
Republican candidates and groups sponsored 81% of the AI-generated ads in the database, compared with 12% sponsored by Democrats. Independent candidates and groups behind issue ads make up the remaining share. Republican-affiliated sponsors account for an even larger portion of the money: 88% of the more than $137 million.
The ads have appeared in 34 states, but only 27% carry a disclaimer identifying AI use. “Much of the AI use is not disclosed through any type of disclaimer,” Erika Franklin Fowler, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, said in the release. The figures describe ads that researchers identified—not a complete accounting of every campaign ad that may have used AI.
What the count includes—and misses
The project tracks ads generated or enhanced at least in part with AI tools. Its researchers draw on their own coding, explicit disclaimers, news coverage, AdImpact’s tagging and ads flagged by project staff and confirmed by the team. The category therefore covers more than fabricated video or audio: an ad can qualify when AI played a part in its creation, rather than producing the entire spot.
Detection is a central limitation. The researchers say it can be difficult to tell whether an image was created with AI, and exclude ads when they cannot make that determination. The project describes its totals as an underestimate, since some uses may go unnoticed even by trained coders.
AdImpact estimates underpin the spending figure
Wesleyan’s release says the spending estimates for identified ads come from AdImpact. The $137 million is an estimate tied to ads in the project’s database, not a direct measure of campaign production budgets or a count of how often voters saw each ad. The release does not provide a breakdown of that AI-ad spending by platform or by individual campaign.
The comparison with 2024 is stark: less than $50,000 in spending identified then, against more than $137 million now. But the two figures remain measures of what the project could identify, and the researchers warn that hidden AI use could push the current-cycle total higher.
Disclosure remains the clearest gap
With disclaimers on just over one in four identified ads, most of the ads in the database offer viewers no disclosure that AI helped make them. The project’s findings do not establish that every unlabeled ad is deceptive, or that every ad uses synthetic people, voices or events. They show how rarely disclosure accompanies identified AI use and how much spending is already attached to those ads.
As the project updates its count, two uncertainties remain bound together: how much AI-assisted advertising researchers still cannot detect, and how often voters will be told when an ad they encounter used the technology. For now, the database contains 220 ads across 34 states, with only 27% carrying a disclaimer.