New Zealand’s opposition National party has admitted using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate fake images for its political attack ads. The ads featured AI-generated images of a group of robbers storming a simulated jewellery store, two nurses of Pacific Island descent in a Wes Anderson cinematic aesthetic, and a crime victim gazing solemnly out of a window. Another ad was an AI approximation of a poster for The Fast and the Furious franchise, the cast’s likenesses devolved into generic faces, like something you might see on sweatshirts or lunchboxes in a short-lease tat shop.

Questioned on whether the images had been created by AI, National Party leader Christopher Luxon was caught flat-footed. His initial demurrals had the ironic effect of sounding like they themselves were generated by faulty AI:

‘I don’t know about the topic in the sense of I am not sure. You are making an accusation that we are using it, I am not sure that we are. I will need to talk to our team.’

A National party spokesperson later admitted the truth: ‘Yes, we have used AI to create some stock images.’

New Zealand isn’t alone in having to face up to the use of AI. In the UK, a thousand experts called for a pause in the development of AI. They warned that voters may face a wave of AI-driven misinformation at the coming elections, and pushed for regulation of the use of AI in political advertising. In America, Open AI CEO Sam Altman recently testified before Congress, stating that government intervention ‘will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful’ AI systems. A recent attack ad, produced by the Republican National Committee, was generated entirely from AI images.

A National party spokesperson later admitted the truth

New Zealand’s National party has a dubious history of campaign advertising. During the seventies, the party tried to frame the opposition Labour party as a cadre of incorrigible socialists, intent on inveigling foreign ideas about means of control over industry. It broadcast an ad featuring cartoon Soviets in Astrakhan hats, Cossack dancing across the screen, to hammer home this point.

When the initial waves of Polynesian migration to the country were occurring, to address labour shortages, one National ad featured a company boss in front of a line of prospective workers, one of whom was a pronouncedly plump young Polynesian man, with an exaggeratedly vast ‘afro’ hairstyle.

But the latest incident brings up more recent memories, of a political campaign copyright issue that dogged the National party for years.

In 2014, National got into hot water over a campaign ad featuring professional rowers, in blue lycra, out on the water, vaguely evoking the Cambridge and Oxford boat race. It was overlaid with a staccato guitar riff and other music that was an obvious ersatz knock-off of Eminem’s classic anthem ‘Lose Yourself.’ The track itself was described, in its marketing brief, as ‘Eminem-esque,’ which more or less sealed its fate.

In 2017, New Zealand’s high court ruled that the National party infringed on singer Eminem’s copyright and awarded the rapper’s publisher NZ$600,000 (£315,000) in damages.

The court ruled that the National party’s use of the track Eminem-Esque was ‘sufficiently similar’ to Eminem’s original song to impinge on copyright and that ‘Lose Yourself’ was a ‘highly original work’.

AI-generated imagery is likely to feature increasingly in political advertising and campaign material. This latest incident emphasises, however, that political parties – always desperate to instil trust and come across as authentic – risk seeing their efforts backfire if their adverts turn out to be anything but ‘real’.