Cornyn campaign targets Paxton with AI-generated ‘Love Shack’ parody ad

DALLAS - Sen. John Cornyn's campaign on Tuesday released its latest political ad attacking his primary runoff opponent, Ken Paxton.

The ad parodies "Love Shack" by the B-52s and features an AI man that resembles Paxton in a car with two women whose faces are blocked out by black squares with "Mistress #1" and "Mistress #2" written on them.

What they're saying:

"The parody video reminds Texans of just a few of Ken Paxton’s scandals, like using the alias ‘Dave P.’ to Uber to meetups with mistresses, and his two affairs that led to his wife divorcing him on 'biblical grounds,' Cornyn's campaign said in a release. "On May 26th, Texans will order ‘Dave P.’ a one-way ride to his ‘Love Shack’ – far away from the nation’s capital."

"He’s heading down the corrupt highway, looking for his lying getaway. Got himself a ride, it’s an Uber tonight, heading on down to the Love Shack," the ad sings.

The lyrics are a reference to Paxton's 2023 impeachment trial, where records showed an Uber account created by Austin real estate developer Nate Paul under the name "Dave P." that was used by Paxton to travel to the home of Paul and to the apartment of a woman with whom the attorney general was allegedly having an extramarital affair.

Paxton's wife, Angela, filed for divorce last year on "biblical grounds," the divorce petition accused the attorney general of adultery.

Paxton's campaign has not responded to a request for comment about the latest ad.

Using AI in political ads

While Texas has a law that bans the use of deepfakes in campaign ads, that law only applies to state races, not federal ones, meaning it would not cover the U.S. Senate race.

This isn't the first time AI has been used during this race.

Earlier this year, Paxton released an ad featuring AI-generated Cornyn dancing with Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has also released an AI video of Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico reading old tweets.

There currently are no federal regulations regarding the use of AI-generated content in political ads.

According to University of Houston Law Professor Seth Chandler, restrictions on the usage of AI might take some time.

What they're saying:

"I think it will take time for federal or state regulators to even attempt to come up with sensible regulations," Chandler said. "And this may be an area in which the cure is worse than the disease. That is, that when you start saying that, well, because they used AI, we can have additional censoring of the message, that starts to get very, very dangerous."