Generative artificial intelligence (AI) images depicting everything from an angry political mob with torches, masks and weapons next to a communist flag to a sitting congresswoman as a mobster have become an increasingly common sight with more than a year to go until Nevada’s 2026 election.

But a recently passed law (AB73) seeks to mitigate such use of AI on the political battlefield. 

Introduced by Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar and set to take effect in January, the unanimously passed law will require disclosure of any use of AI in election material related to candidates, groups of candidates or political parties made by a candidate or campaign. 

It also allows candidates depicted in AI materials without the legally required disclosures to seek a legal injunction stopping people or groups from disseminating the altered images.

Aguilar says the law will help voters get “accurate information that they can really rely on to make their decision when voting.”

“AI is becoming more sophisticated,” Aguilar said in an interview with The Nevada Independent. “If it’s bad information or it’s a bad actor, you want the voter to know the source of that information.”

Nevada is among 26 states that have implemented laws regulating AI use in campaigns, from Florida to Minnesota, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Many of those states impose civil penalties of thousands of dollars and allow candidates to seek damages if harmed by the use of AI.

Riley Sutton, a Democratic political strategist based in Reno, has used AI in past campaigns, such as for Reno City Councilman Devon Reese. Reese, now running for mayor, had in his last run published AI-edited videos featuring Reese shooting down a spaceship down with lasers and that he will “win gold for Reno” with his face superimposed on the body of a pro surfer. 

“We had a lot of fun making those … it opens creative doors that weren’t necessarily there before for lower budget campaigns,” Sutton said. “That’s not animation I could have ever paid for on a Reno City Council ward election.” 

In Nevada, the disclosure requirement would likely apply to recent posts made by the Washoe County Republican Party, which earlier this month on X posted an AI-generated image of a Black man sipping coffee with images of a city on fire behind him, captioned “Aaron Ford will make your nightmares come true.”

Neither the Washoe Republican Party nor Ford, the attorney general and candidate for governor in 2026, responded to a request for comment. 

In a statement, the Washoe Democratic Party wrote, “We’re disappointed to see the Washoe Republican Party sink to a post that trades on dog-whistle politics instead of offering real solutions for Nevadans.”

Arthur Soto-Vasquez, assistant professor of ethnic/equity studies at UNLV, said AI images allow politicians and political strategists to put a visual to their rhetoric.

“Previously, politicians are going to use metaphorical language, may either use inflammatory comparisons or use comparisons to help people make sense of the political world,” Soto-Vasquez said. “The AI image is used to visualize it, to make it real.”

Aguilar said he was partly inspired to bring the bill forward after the proliferation of AI during the 2024 presidential election, where it was readily used by the public and candidates alike to mimic the voices of candidates and create deepfakes, realistic AI-generated videos which depict individuals saying or doing something they never did. President Donald Trump even posted an AI image showing Taylor Swift endorsing him, which she never did.

The idea, however, has been in the works since Aguilar stepped into office in 2023 as secretary of state. After he met with an academic who did some testing on AI use in Nevada, he began a “big research campaign” of AI bills across the country. 

“My head started to spin,” Aguilar said.

Sutton predicted that AB73 will be hard to enforce, especially since it does not impose a financial penalty. 

“The legislation has very little teeth,” Sutton said, adding that political operatives could post digitally altered videos from anonymous accounts without alerting the state to their actions. “Bad actors are going to bad act.” 

Peter Koltak, a Democratic campaign consultant, says that the challenge of enforcing the new law will be determining the “fine balance” between deterring misinformation and navigating “legitimate political speech.” 

“I think it’s smart to err on the side of not over correcting to maybe stay in a position of being a little more reactive, to see how some of this stuff plays out,” Koltak said. 

Clark County School Board trustee Lydia Dominguez, a Republican, launched her campaign for the Congressional District 3 seat with a video featuring manipulated content of Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV)  and Democratic politicians appearing to be California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wearing traditional mob attire. 

“The new mob, as my ad points out, consists of career politicians like Susie Lee who, at taxpayer expense, seek to enrich themselves while the people they represent struggle to make ends meet,” Dominguez said in a statement to The Nevada Independent about her ad. 

Under the new disclosure law, Dominguez would have to disclose the use of AI in her video. 

In a statement to The Indy, Lee spokesperson Greg Lademann said the ad proved Dominguez needed to “cover up for her lack of vision for Nevadans [by turning] to deepfakes and falsehoods.” 

“Nevadans should be able to trust what they see with their own eyes. Unfortunately, in our age of AI this is no longer guaranteed,” he said.

Soto-Vasquez said political imagery, much like political rhetoric, largely reinforces voters’ existing worldviews even if they can identify it as false. 

“People from very different persuasions can look at a piece of media in totally different interpretations,” Soto-Vasquez said. “If you agree with that worldview, you might say, ‘I know it’s fake, but it feels true to me.’” 

Kenneth Miller, an assistant professor of political science at UNLV, said AI images aren’t too different from Photoshop or other visual manipulation software that have been used for decades in past campaigns.

“I suppose the newer part would be it’s a little cheaper to do now,” Miller said. 

Jeremy Hughes, a Republican political consultant who has worked on major campaigns in Nevada, said candidates and campaigns have been digitally altering photos of opponents for decades. He said AI is not pushing the envelope in that sense, at least for now.

“In 10 years it’ll be a much bigger deal than it is now,” Hughes said. “We’re just seeing the beginning of it.”