Thomas Massie said an AI-generated attack ad against him was “beyond the pale” after the ad showed thomas massie holding hands with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar while checking into a hotel. The super PAC spot also flashed the line, “Thomas Massie caught in a throuple!” and carried a disclosure saying, “This satirical ad was created with artificial intelligence.”
Kentucky 4th PAC ads
The ad surfaced in a northern Kentucky Republican primary that has already seen AI-generated attacks aimed at Massie and his opponent, Ed Gallrein. A month earlier, Kentucky 4th PAC aired an AI-generated ad against Gallrein that showed him fleeing a Trump rally and a battlefield as Trump shot at unseen enemies.
Massie spoke after appearing at a KET debate Monday. He said, “It's always the losing campaign that does the crazy crap, and that is so ridiculous that I think it could backfire on them.” He added, “It's frankly an insult to older voters who don't know that AI exists.”
Kentucky's 2025 law
Kentucky lawmakers passed bipartisan legislation in 2025 to limit the use of AI and synthetic media in election materials. The law does not include criminal penalties and does not prohibit deepfakes of candidates, but it does allow a candidate to sue for an injunction if an ad lacks a “clear and conspicuous” disclosure.
That disclosure line became the dividing point in Massie's case. The ad attacking him included it; the Gallrein ad did not include any apparent disclosure that AI was used, and a Gallrein supporter called it an “insult to all veterans.” Walter Herd, identified as Col. Walter Herd of Simpsonville, said, “Gallrein continued to move to the sound of the guns for three decades yet Mr. Massie and his Democrat backers created his recent Disneyland AI cartoon to call a decorated combat veteran a coward and traitor” and “Creating such a made up lie is the act of cowardice and treachery that Mr. Massie's cartoon really highlights his own.”
The ads were paid for and distributed by independent PACs rather than the candidates’ campaigns, which leaves the fight centered on disclosure and potential civil action rather than penalties. That puts the next step on whether either side uses Kentucky’s injunction process over the synthetic media rules, not on any ban on the ads themselves.
