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Voters who Googled how to donate to Talarico got an AI answer that led them to give to a different senator. A network of fake news websites seeded messaging about state & local candidates that AI answers picked up on. My story on how the AI midterms are going: www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

theatlantic.comAmerica Is About to See What Happens When Voters Turn to AIChatbots are adding a new layer of chaos ahead of the midterms.

Will Oremus

@willoremus.com

Props to @ajcarrillo.bsky.social for catching a deceptive ActBlue page that was cropping up in Google's AI Overview and funneling donations intended for James Talarico to Colorado Democrat John Hickenlooper, whose seat is safe and who had no idea it was happening: www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Will Oremus

@willoremus.com

A network of 37 sites with names like the Wolverine State Report and Kalamazoo Beacon appeared overnight in September. Filled with Q&As seeding positive messages about state and local candidates, the sites were soon getting cited in answers by Google and ChatGPT. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

Will Oremus

@willoremus.com

The day after I asked Google about the sites, they stopped appearing in Google search results and AI answers, and Google's AI answers to the questions that had previously cited them changed. www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

22/10/26, 1:57 pm11 reposts64 likes

Will Oremus

@willoremus.com

"We're campaigning for the AI vote now," Eric Wilson, a Republican campaign technologist, told me. Gift link to my story today on how voters getting information from AI is already complicating the midterm elections: www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

theatlantic.comAmerica Is About to See What Happens When Voters Turn to AIChatbots are adding a new layer of chaos ahead of the midterms.