Politicians Use AI to Sharpen Voter Microtargeting as 2023 Study Found Limited Impact
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Nov 2
Politicians Use AI to Sharpen Voter Microtargeting as 2023 Study Found Limited Impact
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Nov 2
Summary
AI-powered apps are making voter microtargeting cheaper and faster, letting politicians mine census, commodity-price and local voting data to tailor outreach to narrow groups of voters.
Those tools can quickly generate personalized texts, ads and viral-ready videos, lowering the cost of both message creation and distribution while increasing the precision of campaign targeting.
Election experts warn the same precision can amplify false or misleading claims, because small-scale digital messages are harder to spot and correct than broad national advertising.
Microtargeting has been central to campaigns since Barack Obama’s 2008 run, but a 2023 MIT study found political ads were hard to microtarget at scale and were far from “mind control.”
Experts say AI changes that equation as trust erodes, fact-checkers remain stretched and large volumes of personal data are available for purchase.