Muck Rack Explain To Shane Candidates Bots And Ballots How Ai Is

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 6, 2025, 11:28 AM

muck rack explain to shane candidates bots and ballots how ai is

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in. Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates. Generative AI poses new challenges for political campaigning and our democracy as we head towards the 2024 presidential election. While this technology could streamline political messaging, there is greater fear that it could enable widespread manipulation and distortion of the democratic process. Heading into a contentious election, how can we assess and mitigate harms from AI-generated disinformation? How will the use of generative AI be different than prior “cheap fake” attempts?

How should policymakers prepare for and respond to the use of AI in political advertising? On this episode, Shane is joined by Scott Brennen and Matt Perault, co-authors of “The new political ad machine: Policy frameworks for political ads in an age of AI.” They discuss how generative AI... Generative AI poses new challenges for political campaigning and our democracy as we head towards the 2024 presidential election. While this technology could streamline political messaging, there is greater fear that it could enable widespread manipulation and distortion of the democratic process. Heading into a contentious election, how can we assess and mitigate harms from AI-generated disinformation? How will the use of generative AI be different than prior “cheap fake” attempts?

How should policymakers prepare for and respond to the use of AI in political advertising? On this episode, Shane is joined by Scott Brennen and Matt Perault, co-authors of “The new political ad machine: Policy frameworks for political ads in an age of AI.” They discuss how generative AI... Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More The Independent Center is using AI to identify congressional districts where independent candidates could win over the Democratic or Republican candidate. Its goal is to elect at least a handful of independents to disrupt the two-party system on Capitol Hill.

Glenn Harvey for NPR hide caption The rise of AI assistants is rewriting the rhythms of everyday life: People are feeding their blood test results into chatbots, turning to ChatGPT for advice on their love lives and leaning on AI... Now, one organization suggests artificial intelligence can go beyond making daily life more convenient. It says it's the key to reshaping American politics. "Without AI, what we're trying to do would be impossible," explained Adam Brandon, a senior adviser at the Independent Center, a nonprofit that studies and engages with independent voters. The goal is to elect a handful of independent candidates to the House of Representatives in 2026, using AI to identify districts where independents could succeed and uncover diamond in the rough candidates.

Co-hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer look back at the last five months of headlines as they celebrate the twentieth episode of Terms of Engagement. Archon Fung and Stephen Richer are joined by Michelle Feldman, political director at Mobile Voting, a nonprofit, nonpartisan initiative working to make voting easier with expanded access to mobile voting. Archon Fung and Stephen Richer discuss whether fusion voting expands representation and strengthens smaller parties—or whether it muddies party lines and confuses voters. Creating a healthy digital civic infrastructure ecosystem means not just deploying technology for the sake of efficiency, but thoughtfully designing tools built to enhance democratic engagement from connection to action. Public engagement has long been too time-consuming and costly for governments to sustain, but AI offers tools to make participation more systematic and impactful. Our new Reboot Democracy Workshop Series replaces lectures with hands-on sessions that teach the practical “how-to’s” of AI-enhanced engagement.

Together with leading practitioners and partners at InnovateUS and the Allen Lab at Harvard, we’ll explore how AI can help institutions tap the collective intelligence of our communities more efficiently and effectively. How should we address the governance gap between central banks controlling money and the oversight of cryptocurrency? How can decentralized crypto networks and centralized monetary authorities collaborate? And what’s next for digital finance? To explore these questions, Shane Tews is joined by Milton Mueller, Karim Farhat, and Vagisha Srivastava from the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. Mueller is the cofounder and director of the Internet Governance Project at Georgia Tech, where he specializes in the political economy of the internet.

Farhat is the assistant director of the Internet Governance Project, focusing primarily on the digital economy and cybersecurity. Srivastava is a PhD student working on internet fragmentation. They are also joined by Nicoletta Kolpakov, director of the Cirrus Institute. This group’s extensive knowledge makes for an engaging and informative episode. Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act is the foundation of open banking in the United States—giving individuals the right to access and share their own financial data with services of their choice. This rule seeks to increase consumer control, encourage competition, and make it easier to switch providers or use financial management tools.

However, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—the agency responsible for implementing this provision—is now reconsidering how (or whether) it should be enforced. In today’s discussion, we explore why Section 1033 has become a key focus of rulemaking and how changes to open banking policies could shift the balance of power between consumers, financial institutions, and emerging... To look into this, Shane Tews spoke with Penny Lee, president and CEO of the Financial Technology Association. Penny is also the cofounder of K Street Capital—an angel investment group in Washington, DC—and served as a senior advisor for former US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. She brings more than two decades of experience in the private and public sectors, making for an informative conversation. Bluesky Social is a social media app that was originally launched in 2019 on Twitter, before becoming an independent company in 2021.

Bluesky’s mission is to offer a decentralized experience for users—where algorithms are not imposed on them, but they can choose their content preferences. The platform also highlights the importance of portability, enabling users to carry their social media ecosystems across different platforms. But what are the technical and social challenges to making true platform portability a reality? Emory experts weigh in on how chatbots, algorithmic targeting, deepfakes and a sea of misinformation — and the tools designed to counter them — might sway how we vote in November and beyond. Or so it seemed. The voice on the other end of the line sounded just like President Joe Biden.

He even used his signature catchphrase: “What a bunch of malarkey!” But strangely, he was telling these would-be voters to stay away from the polls, falsely warning them that voting in the primary would... The robocalls didn’t necessarily impact the voting results; Biden still handily won the New Hampshire Democratic primary. Nevertheless, the stunt sent shockwaves through the worlds of politics, media and technology because the misleading message didn’t come from the president — it came from a machine. The call was what’s known as a deepfake, a recording generated by artificial intelligence (AI), made by a political consultant to sound exactly like Biden and, in this case, apparently suppress voter turnout. It was one of the most high-profile examples of how generative AI is being used in the realm of politics. These deepfakes are affecting both sides of the political aisle.

In summer 2023, the early days of the Republican race for the presidency, would-be candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis shared deepfakes of former President Donald Trump hugging Anthony Fauci, one of the leaders and lightning rods of the U.S.’s COVID-19 response. And, despite being a victim of deepfake tactics like this, Trump has not been afraid to turn around and use them himself. Famously, this included his recent Truth Social post of AI-manipulated photos that showed pop star Taylor Swift, decked out as Uncle Sam, endorsing him for president.

Muck Rack Explain To Shane Candidates Bots And Ballots How Ai Is

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