AI put Wes Moore and Dan Cox in a very unlikely — possibly illegal — embrace

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and his Republican rival Dan Cox have never hugged, and definitely not in the State House.

But a fake image circulating on social media shows the two men in a warm embrace in the Governor’s Reception Room. Cox, facing the camera, is grinning. Moore’s eyes are closed.

The image is the work of the campaign of Ed Hale Sr., who is competing with Cox for the Republican nomination for governor.

Hale posted the image on social media Wednesday, writing underneath that Moore is “propping up Dan Cox … because he’s terrified to face me.”

The image was produced in response to ads that Moore has run on Fox News and Facebook alleging that Cox is “too conservative” for Maryland and that Hale is an untrustworthy party switcher. The Maryland Democratic Party sent out a similarly themed mailer.

Hale’s post suggests that Moore and Democrats are trying to boost Cox’s campaign by highlighting his far-right positions and alliance with President Donald Trump.

As the capability of and access to AI tools have improved, so has their use in politics — mostly to controversy.

Trump frequently shares AI-generated images and videos on social media. An anonymous account has used AI to criticize and mock Moore on social media. And Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott rebuked Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming for sharing a video that included an AI-generated image of Scott that the mayor called “racist” and “deeply inappropriate.”

The image of Cox and Moore could run afoul of a new Maryland law that bans the use of “deepfake” images, audio and video that are intended to “influence or attempt to influence a voter’s decision whether to vote for or against a candidate.”

The law defines deepfake material as something that has been created or manipulated “with the use of generative artificial intelligence or other digital technology to create a realistic but false depiction of a person that an ordinary person would conclude is an actual visual or audio representation of the person depicted.”

Violations of the law can be punished by a fine of up to $5,000 and a maximum of five years in prison. The law took effect June 1.

Andrew Brightwell, a spokesman for the Hale campaign, said he made the image using a combination of Adobe Photoshop and artificial intelligence. He thinks it should be classified as satire, which is legally permissible under the 1st Amendment.

“It is political satire at its finest,” Brightwell said.

Brightwell said he was aware of the law before he made and posted the image, having followed the process through the General Assembly session.

“We’re not trying to persuade voters or misinform voters in any way whatsoever,” Brightwell said. “It’s clearly satire.”

The Cox campaign accused Hale and Moore of colluding and called the image a “deceptive deepfake.”

“The image is materially false and raises serious concerns under Maryland’s recently enacted laws governing deceptive AI-generated political content,” Cox said in a statement.

Cox did not respond to an interview request.

“The use of artificial intelligence to mislead, disinform, and influence Maryland elections is disgusting, and should be stopped,” Maryland Democratic Party Executive Director Karen Darkes said in a statement.

If anyone’s trying to misinform, Brightwell said, it’s Moore and the Democratic Party.

Both Hale’s team and Cox’s camp have called the Democratic ads inappropriate meddling in GOP matters.

“I denounce this interference with our elections and absolutely false attack on Republicans such as myself as ‘too conservative,’” Cox said in a statement on Tuesday.

Hale called the ads an inappropriate attempt at manipulation during a news conference in Rosedale Wednesday morning.

“This is, to me, so blatantly bad that the governor of our state is manipulating the election to get everybody out except for Dan Cox, who he whipped badly by 32 points the last election,” Hale said. “And he wants to do this very same thing again.”

Democrats rolled out a similar playbook in 2022, when the Democratic Governors Association ran ads during the primary season that promoted Cox’s alliance with Trump. Cox won that primary before being defeated in the general election by Moore, 65% to 32%.

The Moore campaign declined to comment on the Cox-Moore image.

Maryland’s primary is June 23rd.