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AI deepfakes pose risks to consumers and voters, experts warn
Experts warn AI deepfakes pose risks to consumers and voters as scams and AI-generated midterm election ads spread.
Key points
- Political campaigns had spent more than $137 million on at least 220 AI-generated ads by mid-October, per the Wesleyan Media Project.
- Veriff has documented a 300% increase in deepfake-related fraud attempts against businesses this year, compared with 2025.
- In one Doppel test, only 8% of people realized an AI agent was calling them, while 92% thought they were speaking to a human.
Why it matters. Experts say the ease of making deepfakes could let bad actors bombard people with hyper-realistic scams and disinformation, making it hard to tell what is legitimate.
Advances in artificial intelligence make it easy to create deepfake images, videos and audio, security experts told CBS News. In one test by Doppel, only 8% of people realized an AI agent was calling them, while 92% thought they were speaking to a human. Political campaigns spent more than $137 million on at least 220 AI-generated ads by mid-October, according to the Wesleyan Media Project.
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AI deepfakes pose risks to consumers and voters, experts warn
"When you can't tell what's legitimate, you question everything," said one cybersecurity expert focused on political campaigns. Advances in artificial intelligence are making it a cinch to create so-called deepfake images, videos and audio recordings, raising concerns that bad actors could bombard people with hyper-realistic scams and spread disinformation. Deepfakes that use the voices and likenesses of public figures, including celebrities or political candidates, can also deceive the public in various ways, security experts told CBS News. By one measure, fewer than 10% of people can recognize an audio deepfake, according to Doppel, a social engineering defense platform for detecting AI-enabled threats."In a test, only 8% of people realized an AI agent was calling them, whereas 92% of people thought they were speaking to a human," said Doppel co-founder Kevin Tian. AI's capacity to churn out deepfakes at scale is a pressing issue in the political arena, according to security experts. AI-generated advertisements featuring deepfakes of politicians have already surfaced across the internet and social media ahead of the midterm elections. In one such incident in Texas, a phony, AI-manipulated social video targeting Senate candidate James Talarico purported to show a former student accusing the Democrat of sexual misconduct, according to The Poynter Institute's PolitiFact service.