GOP Tennessee state Senate candidate appears to use AI to misrepresent his image

Charlie Cooper, a Republican candidate for the Tennessee state Senate, has posted several images presumably generated by artificial intelligence on his Facebook and X pages.

The images portray Cooper as leaner, younger and with more hair than the other photos he has posted recently. In one of the images, Cooper is wearing two watches, one on each wrist. In another one, two microphone grilles appear to impossibly merge into one body.

The new images are also being used as Cooper’s profile pictures on his personal and campaign Facebook pages. Cooper’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the images.

Source: Charlie Cooper for TN State Senate – District 24 on Facebook

The images surfaced just days after a bipartisan group of U.S. senators urged a $32 billion investment in developing artificial intelligence and safeguards.

Cooper is one of many politicians utilizing artificial intelligence in political advertising. Last month, the Republican National Committee attacked President Joe Biden with a 30-second ad that used images completely generated by artificial intelligence, according to the disclaimer in the top left of the video.

NIGHTMARE: What if Joe Biden, the weakest president we’ve ever had, is re-elected? pic.twitter.com/b5HvY9GEr0

— GOP (@GOP) April 25, 2023

In addition to creating images and videos, politicians can use artificial intelligence for sending emails, calling voters and communicating via chatbots on a large scale. On Thursday, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella indicted political consultant Steve Kramer on 13 felony charges and 13 misdemeanor charges, alleging that Kramer illegally used President Joe Biden’s voice in a robocall campaign ahead of the state’s presidential primary.

This is the first time Cooper is seeking public office. According to his LinkedIn page, Cooper previously worked as a policy advisor and the chairman of the Benton County Republican Party. Cooper will challenge incumbent state Sen. John Stevens (R-Huntingdon) in the Aug. 4 primary election to determine the Republican nominee for Tennessee’s 24^th Senate District.