In 2024, election officials, social media platform managers, and artificial intelligence developers were poised for an “AI apocalypse” that didn’t arrive. They feared that fake content would deceive voters and sway election outcomes. But the fakes that voters did run into—like the 2024 New Hampshire presidential primary robocall imitating former President Joe Biden’s voice that told voters to wait until November to cast their ballots—had limited impact.

There were also telltale signs to spot AI-generated visuals that were easier to catch, like hands with extra or fewer fingers or short-form videos shot from a single angle. But back then, campaign operatives also feared public blowback from either openly adopting tools that were unfamiliar to most voters or surreptitiously employing AI-generated content and being found out.

Today, Americans find themselves in a political ecosystem where democratic norms have been shattered. The risks of AI-generated fakes are more pronounced, but public objections are less of a deterrent. In January, a White House account posted a photograph of an African American protester in Minnesota, altered to darken her skin and depict her in tears. Anti-ICE activists have shared images of immigration officers who have been “unmasked” by AI—an “ill-advised” tactic because of AI’s penchant for hallucinating facial features and other details.

Fast-forward to the 2026 midterm election season. The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a deepfake video of Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate, “reading” his own years-old social media posts. The tiny words “AI Generated” appear in all caps at the bottom right-hand corner of the video. But many voters might miss that and believe the politician had recorded words that he’d never actually said.

The AI experts and media literacy experts interviewed by the Prospect say it’s more important than ever for voters to maintain good digital hygiene, especially when governments and tech companies fall short in helping voters distinguish between authentic political media and material expressly created to deceive them.