Severity minor: The harm is reputational to one political candidate, with no data or systems of third parties touched and no loss figure stated.
Earliest source we hold 2026-10-12
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.
Risk grouping: Not yet classified
Who caused it
A person or organisation “Each of them were uploaded to X by Van Orden, who lobs online attacks at his campaign opponent almost daily.”source
Intended or not
Intended “The purpose of the ads, Stafford wrote, was to harm Cooke’s reputation — and her chance of winning the election.”source
Before or after release
After release “Each of them were uploaded to X by Van Orden, who lobs online attacks at his campaign opponent almost daily.”source
No source we hold states: the ai's part.
The story
1 · What it was doingGrok 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.
2 · What went wrongThe deepfakes depicted Cooke saying things she never said, which her attorney said falsely attributed statements to her and amounted to defamation.
3 · What it reached or didThe ads were posted to X and seen by voters, who Cooke said were confused, especially older people.
4 · How it was caughtCooke and her campaign noticed the ads and responded with a cease-and-desist letter.
5 · What was doneCooke'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.