A controversial political advertisement has ignited fierce debate across Ohio’s Southwest Local School District, raising profound questions about privacy, technology ethics, and the future of local political campaigns. The video, which used artificial intelligence to generate images of an opponent’s home, has community members and ethics experts alike questioning where the boundaries lie in our increasingly digital political landscape.
The campaign video, created by school board candidate Michelle McManus, featured AI-generated images of opponent Adam Doenges’ residence alongside criticism of his policy positions. The footage never explicitly claimed to show the actual property, yet the resemblance was striking enough to provoke immediate backlash from community members.
“I felt violated,” Doenges told me during a phone interview yesterday. “Using technology to create images of my private residence crosses a line that shouldn’t be crossed in local politics. This isn’t about policy disagreement anymore—it’s about respecting basic boundaries.”
McManus has defended her campaign’s approach, maintaining that the ad addressed legitimate policy concerns. In a statement provided to Epochedge, she explained: “The video focused on substantive issues facing our district. We used publicly available property information as reference, but the images themselves were AI creations, not actual photographs of anyone’s home.”
This distinction—between AI-generated content and actual photography—lies at the heart of an evolving ethical conversation that extends far beyond one Ohio school board race.
David Pepper, former Ohio Democratic Party Chairman, described the incident as “a troubling preview of what’s coming in 2024.” Election security experts have long warned about AI’s potential to disrupt democratic processes, but this case represents something new: the technology’s deployment in hyperlocal elections typically characterized by community forums and yard signs, not sophisticated digital campaigns.
The Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA) has taken notice. Their spokesperson Jennifer Hogue confirmed they’re developing new guidelines for candidates regarding AI usage in campaigns. “School board elections have traditionally been nonpartisan community affairs,” Hogue noted. “The introduction of advanced technologies raises questions about transparency and fair play that our current frameworks aren’t equipped to address.”
Data from the National Association of State Election Directors shows complaints about misleading campaign materials increased 37% between 2021 and 2023, with AI-related concerns appearing in approximately 14% of recent cases—a figure expected to rise dramatically in upcoming election cycles.
Dr. Samantha Reynolds, Professor of Digital Ethics at Ohio State University, sees this incident as emblematic of broader challenges. “When technology outpaces regulatory frameworks, we end up in these gray areas where something might be technically legal but ethically questionable,” she explained. “The deployment of AI in a local school board race demonstrates how quickly these tools are becoming mainstream.”
For Southwest Local School District parent Melissa Thornton, the controversy feels personal. “I’ve lived here for twenty years, and our school board elections have always been about who you know from soccer games or church,” she told me at a recent community meeting. “Now we’re dealing with AI-generated content? It feels like we’ve lost something important about local politics.”
The Federal Election Commission hasn’t established specific regulations governing AI in political advertising, though the issue has captured Congressional attention. Last March, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Cynthia Lummis introduced bipartisan legislation requiring disclaimers on AI-generated political content, but the bill remains in committee.
Ohio’s election laws similarly lack explicit provisions addressing artificial intelligence in campaign materials. State law requires political advertisements to include disclaimers identifying their sponsors but doesn’t specifically address AI-generated content that might blur the line between fact and fiction.
Southwest Local Superintendent John Eckert expressed concern about the controversy’s impact on the district. “School board elections should focus on educational vision and student outcomes,” he said. “When campaigns become controversial for reasons unrelated to education policy, it distracts from our core mission.”
The incident mirrors broader trends in political communications. The Pew Research Center reports that 62% of Americans worry about AI’s potential to spread misinformation in political contexts, while 71% support greater transparency requirements for technology-enhanced campaign materials.
As early voting begins in Ohio, the controversy continues to reverberate throughout the community. At yesterday’s school board candidate forum, audience questions repeatedly returned to digital ethics and campaign transparency, overshadowing traditional education policy discussions.
Having covered political campaigns for nearly two decades, I’ve witnessed the gradual digitization of electoral politics. But what’s happening now represents something fundamentally different—not just a new communication channel but a technology capable of creating convincing realities that never existed.
For Southwest Local voters like retired teacher Barbara Williamson, the controversy has become a factor in her decision-making process. “I’ve always evaluated candidates based on their experience and positions,” she said after the forum. “Now I find myself also considering how they campaign and whether they use these new technologies responsibly.”
As AI tools become more accessible, campaign professionals and ethics experts alike predict this won’t be the last local election where artificial intelligence plays a controversial role. The question facing communities, candidates, and eventually legislators is no longer whether AI will transform political campaigns, but how to ensure that transformation preserves democratic values and personal boundaries.
The polls close next Tuesday. Whatever the outcome, this small Ohio school board race may be remembered as an early battlefield in the emerging struggle to define ethical boundaries in the age of artificial intelligence.
