{"schema_version":"0.8.0","id":"LR-2026-0169","record_version":4,"title":"AI deepfake ads depicting Wisconsin congressional candidate Rebecca Cooke","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":45.5,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":0.0,"completeness":5.12,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-09-30.6","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-12","extraction_run_id":null},"system":{"model_name":"Grok Imagine","model_version":null,"developer":"xAI","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":"generating AI deepfake political attack ads depicting rival candidates","safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-10-12","incident_class":"harmful_output","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":false,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden used Grok Imagine to generate AI deepfake videos and images depicting his Democratic opponent Rebecca Cooke saying things she never said, and posted them to X as campaign attack ads.","tags":["political-deepfake","defamation"],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"minor","severity_because":"minor: The harm is reputational to one political candidate, with no data or systems of third parties touched and no loss figure stated.","harm_class":[],"affected_description":"Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat running for Congress in rural Wisconsin, depicted in AI-generated deepfake ads","protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://san.com/cc/politicians-are-making-ai-deepfakes-of-their-rivals-the-targets-say-its-defamation/","publisher":"news search (Google News index)","date":"2026-10-12","type":"press","title":"Politicians are making AI deepfakes of their rivals. The targets say it’s defamation","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.model_name":"C","system.intended_use":"D","system.developer":"D","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.tags":"D","event.agent_involved":"D","event.summary":"D","event.incident_class":"D","event.date_disclosed":"A","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","impact.affected_description":"C","impact.severity":"D","context.industry":"D","context.denominator_available":"D","context.country":"D","impact.severity_because":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.model_name":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Each of the AI-generated videos carry an automated disclosure of being “made with Grok Imagine.”"}],"system.developer":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Each of the AI-generated videos carry an automated disclosure of being “made with Grok Imagine.”"}],"system.intended_use":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The video is one in a flood of AI-generated images that show Cooke, who is campaigning in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, spouting gaffes that she has never uttered in real life."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Each of them were uploaded to X by Van Orden, who lobs online attacks at his campaign opponent almost daily."}],"event.tags":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The video is one in a flood of AI-generated images that show Cooke, who is campaigning in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, spouting gaffes that she has never uttered in real life."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"In a cease-and-desist letter late last month, an attorney with national political law firm Elias Law Group ordered Van Orden to halt the “misleading” ads against Cooke, claiming the AI-generated deepfakes amounted to defamation."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In a cease-and-desist letter late last month, an attorney with national political law firm Elias Law Group ordered Van Orden to halt the “misleading” ads against Cooke, claiming the AI-generated deepfakes amounted to defamation."}],"event.agent_involved":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Each of the AI-generated videos carry an automated disclosure of being “made with Grok Imagine.”"}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A recent online advertisement depicts Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat running for Congress in rural Wisconsin, with a frown and an unsettling message."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The purpose of the ads, Stafford wrote, was to harm Cooke’s reputation — and her chance of winning the election."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The purpose of the ads, Stafford wrote, was to harm Cooke’s reputation — and her chance of winning the election."}],"context.industry":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Attack ads are par for the course, particularly in contentious up-for-grab races like the one between Van Orden and Cooke."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A recent online advertisement depicts Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat running for Congress in rural Wisconsin, with a frown and an unsettling message."}],"event.date_disclosed":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"published: 2026-10-12"}]},"notes_on_gaps":"No source states the developer of Grok Imagine, the date the deepfakes were created or posted, who first detected the ads, any monetary loss figure, or the arrangement of human oversight during generation. event.trigger is written as human_misuse because the source states Van Orden uploaded the ads himself; no source rules out an external cause, so spontaneous is not used. event.incident_class is harmful_output because the deepfake content should have been refused; no agentic mechanism is stated, so failure_class is left null. impact.severity is minor: reputational harm to one candidate, no third-party data or systems touched, no loss figure stated. event.trigger: human_misuse was classified, not stated; a trigger is never inferred, so it is unknown. system.tier: not set; no operator named and deployment_context is not a lab's. [aggregated by deepseek-chat, aggregate-2026-09-27.1, 2026-10-12] system.intended_use: classified from described behaviour. system.developer: no source names the developer. system.autonomy_level: no source states the arrangement. system.deployment_context: no source states where it ran. event.tags: classified from described behaviour. event.agent_involved: classified from described behaviour. event.summary: classified from described behaviour. event.incident_class: a source states the system produced content, or carried out an action, that it should have refused. event.trigger: no source states a cause. event.detection_method: no source says who first noticed. context.industry: classified from described behaviour. context.denominator_available: no denominator is available for this incident. context.country: classified from described behaviour. [corrected by Srini Iyer, approved 2026-10-18 in the corrections review: severity reason printed the whole rubric] [corrected by Srini Iyer, approved 2026-10-22 in the corrections review: citations to sentences about a different event were removed; developer named by a cited sentence about this event]"},"context":{"industry":"political campaigns","org_size_band":null,"country":"US","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"Grok Imagine was used to generate AI deepfake videos and images of Democratic congressional candidate Rebecca Cooke for Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden's campaign, which posted them to X as attack ads.","quote":"Each of them were uploaded to X by Van Orden, who lobs online attacks at his campaign opponent almost daily.","source_index":0,"grade":"D"},{"step":"went_wrong","text":"The deepfakes depicted Cooke saying things she never said, which her attorney said falsely attributed statements to her and amounted to defamation.","quote":"In the cease-and-desist letter to Van Orden’s campaign, partner Ben Stafford of the Elias Law Group wrote that the ads “falsely attribute statements” to Cooke, with realistic renderings that give “the veneer of truth to these falsities.”","source_index":0,"grade":"D"},{"step":"reached","text":"The ads were posted to X and seen by voters, who Cooke said were confused, especially older people.","quote":"The AI-generated advertising “really confused a lot of people and has continued to confuse people, especially older folks,” Cooke told Straight Arrow.","source_index":0,"grade":"D"},{"step":"caught","text":"Cooke and her campaign noticed the ads and responded with a cease-and-desist letter; the article does not say who first detected them.","quote":"In a cease-and-desist letter late last month, an attorney with national political law firm Elias Law Group ordered Van Orden to halt the “misleading” ads against Cooke, claiming the AI-generated deepfakes amounted to defamation.","source_index":0,"grade":"D"},{"step":"done","text":"Cooke's campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding Van Orden halt the ads and threatening legal options; Van Orden did not stop and posted another AI attack ad.","quote":"After Cooke’s campaign sent the cease-and-desist letter, Van Orden clapped back with another AI-powered attack ad.","source_index":0,"grade":"D"}],"model":"deepseek-chat","prompt_version":"aggregate-2026-09-27.1","extracted_at":"2026-10-12","source_urls":["https://san.com/cc/politicians-are-making-ai-deepfakes-of-their-rivals-the-targets-say-its-defamation/"]}}