If you've received a stream of campaign text messages ahead of the midterm elections, the sender may not be a human volunteer. According to NPR, there could be an AI bot behind those political texts, part of a growing use of artificial intelligence in how campaigns reach voters.
The shift is drawing warnings. According to The Times of India, Abhinandan Gill, a Canada-based Punjabi, has cautioned against the misuse of artificial intelligence in politics.
Together, the two reports point to the same underlying trend: AI is moving from a behind-the-scenes tool into the front line of political communication, where it can generate and send messages directly to voters at scale. NPR's reporting focuses on the practical reality that automated systems, rather than people, may be drafting or dispatching the campaign texts landing in inboxes before the midterms.
That automation is exactly what critics like Gill are flagging. His warning, as reported by The Times of India, frames AI in politics as something that can be misused — a concern that lands as campaigns lean harder on these tools during an active election cycle.
Why it matters: when the messages shaping an election may be written and sent by software rather than people, voters face a harder time knowing who — or what — is actually trying to reach them.