AI companies’ deceptive election ads show why Congress must scrutinize super PACs

In many of the hottest races in this year’s midterm elections, data centers and artificial intelligence companies were effectively on the ballot. The AI industry knew how unpopular they have become, with voters across the political spectrum furious at them. So, how then could an unpopular industry pour more than $69 million into campaign ads to boost AI-friendly politicians without having their ads backfire when angry voters find out who’s behind them? Simple: Hide who really paid for the ads behind fake names.

This was perfectly legal — and perfectly outrageous.

Following in the footsteps of a slew of other unpopular corporate interests and billionaires before them who knew their names were toxic with voters, the AI industry’s super PAC ads hid their sponsorship behind generically named shell groups like “Defending Our Values,” “Think Big,” “American Mission,” and “Jobs and Democracy.” Almost none of the AI industry’s super PAC ads mentioned data centers or AI at all.

This is not something that favored one side or another; it’s a bipartisan problem. An AI super PAC ad for a Republican candidate featured the phrase “CHAMPION AMERICAN INNOVATION” as he shook hands with firefighters, with no mention of data centers or AI. Another AI super PAC ad for a Democrat running for a House seat praised the candidate as committed to reducing gun violence and supporting law enforcement — no mention of AI. The ads were labeled as paid for by a generically named group, not “paid for by AI companies.”

Voters deserve to know who’s really paying for the ads they see so they can make informed decisions at the ballot box. Access to actionable information is at the heart of a healthy democracy — and the very essence of what the First Amendment was designed to protect.

Congress must close this deceptive super PAC ad loophole before the 2028 elections. The good news is that a recently introduced bill would do exactly that. Inspired by successful voter-approved campaign disclosure laws in Alaska, Arizona and California that passed with cross-partisan support, the Sunlight on SuperPACs Act recently introduced by Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) would enact a simple labeling law requiring all super PAC-funded campaign ads to include the names of their top three donors and how much they donated.

In the case of the AI-funded super PAC ads, they could still use their shell committees to pay for them, but they would have to let voters know that the top funders of the shell committees are AI companies, executives or billionaires. That would give voters the real-time information they need to be able to evaluate the credibility of the ads by seeing who’s paying for them when they’re seeing the ads. Voters are smart but can’t make informed decisions without information.

Courts have already heard multiple corporate-funded challenges to similar state disclosure laws and upheld them all. While we strongly believe that the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. FEC was deeply mistaken in concluding that the First Amendment required allowing corporations to spend unlimited sums to influence elections, the court did unequivocally affirm the constitutionality of campaign disclosure laws.

The Supreme Court has long recognized as consistent with the First Amendment the people’s “informational interest” in requiring election campaigns to provide voters with information about the funders of election ads. Because donor transparency “enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages,” the court has consistently upheld disclosure laws. We are confident it would uphold a super PAC funders labeling law too.

Putting a true source funding label at the bottom of super PAC ads would not address the obscene amount of money being spent on American politics today or limit the questionable claims corporations and billionaires make in their campaign ads. But the Sunlight on SuperPACs Actwill empower voters to be informed about who’s behind the ads they see. Then voters can evaluate the merits of the ads for themselves. We urge the next Congress to give voters that information and shine sunlight on super PACs.

Jon Golinger is the democracy advocate for Public Citizen . Michael Beckel is Money in Politics Reform director for Issue One .