ATLANTA, Ga. — AI-generated attack ads are reaching Georgia voters this fall, and state law does not require any of them to be labeled as artificial.
One ad now circulating online appears to show Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff getting his hair and makeup done in a salon chair. The scene is AI-generated. The spot discloses its sponsor at the end as SLF PAC, tied to the Senate Leadership Fund, an outside group devoted to protecting and expanding the Republican Senate majority whose website features dozens of AI-generated videos.
Georgia lawmakers have tried to act. Senate Bill 9 in the 2025-26 session would have created the crime of fraudulent election interference, given the attorney general concurrent jurisdiction over it and required disclaimers on campaign ads that use AI-generated media. It also would have allowed injunctive relief and directed the State Election Board to publish the results of its investigations into such offenses.
The bill passed the Senate by substitute on March 4, 2025, and the House passed its own substitute on March 27, 2025. On Jan. 28, 2026, the Senate disagreed with the House version, and the measure did not become law.
The bill’s findings warned that the rapid advance of artificial intelligence poses a unique danger to the state’s system of free and fair elections, and said the act was narrowly aimed at deceptive media used in bad faith to hurt a candidate or suppress turnout.
Georgia is not alone. Tracking by the NCSL, the national legislatures group, shows 31 states have safeguards on deepfakes in political messaging, with three prohibiting certain deepfakes and 28 relying on disclosure rules. Georgia and South Carolina have none.
