I’ve been saying for a while, though principally in columns I’ve been writing at The American Spectator, that AI was going to sweep through pop culture with a vengeance. A month or so ago, I had a column about the Amelia meme in the UK, which is still relevant and worth reading, talking about the cultural and societal changes that are coming when you can make film and TV without needing actors anymore.

We’re starting to see AI videos everywhere as more and more people learn to use the technology. What you hear perhaps more than anything else is the concern about “deep fakes,” something that the Biden administration went off about when they were attempting to censor critics on the internet, and naturally those concerns have fallen off in the face of people starting to understand how to spot the difference between AI stuff and real stuff.

And it turns out that AI video is the domain of the smartass and the satirist – at least, so far. YouTube is full of AI videos making fun of practically everybody; for example, the Abandoned Films videos doing takeoffs on those old Most Interesting Man In The World Dos Equis ads are some of the most laugh-out-loud funny things you’ll see and they’re explicitly politically incorrect. No ethnic or demographic group gets out alive, which is fantastic; maybe these things will give us a roadmap back to the time when it was OK to laugh at things which were funny rather than risking judgment from scoldy HR managers or university professors if one happened to find amusement in Irish or Polish jokes.

Not all of it lands. A few days ago, somebody lit off an AI video attacking Julia Letlow with a song – kinda catchy, actually – bashing her over carbon capture and the stock trading issue her opponents have been harping.

This hasn’t taken off; as of our posting it, the YouTube page it’s on only has it with 1400 or so views so far. And while it isn’t bad AI work it’s not quite cinematic (flying rhinos don’t really add to the production; we’d have either left those alone or had them trailing behind her like pets, but that’s a creative call). But you can clearly see what’s happening.

And now, in the race to replace Letlow in Congress, Rick Edmonds’ camp is diving into the AI pool with an ad that would have cost a decent amount of money to produce if they’d hired actors. But you don’t have to do that anymore…

The message here is pretty good – Edmonds is running more or less as the social conservative in the race, so he’s owning that by claiming that he’s the one all the leftist freaks hate the most. A mustachioed “trans woman” with pink hair complaining that Edmonds “misgendered” him isn’t a bad way to show it.

You do these AI ads for a couple of reasons. One, you can generate some very memorable imagery which will stick with people, and two, you can do it very cheaply.

What AI can’t do, though, is give you a message that resonates. It can only amplify such a message.

Does the anti-Letlow ad or Edmonds’ “They Sure Hate Me” ad do that?

The fun part of this, or maybe the horrifying part, depending on your perspective, is that if they don’t, it’s very easy to go back to the drawing board and crank out a new ad.

This is going to be the first campaign in Louisiana – nationally as well, mind you – in which AI video will be prominently featured. Some of you will hate it. And depending on how good it is, you might be right to.