You’ve probably heard of a “straw man,” a fallacy in which you misrepresent an opponent’s argument so it’s easier to refute. Put up a false impression of what they’re saying, and then knock ’em down. We all do it.

But what we all probably don’t do is create a full-blown AI-generated deepfake of our opponent and then sincerely try to argue with it for nearly an hour. And we probably aren’t running for public office, either.

Credit where credit’s due, though. John Reid, a Republican candidate in the Virginia lieutenant governor race, went ahead and did just that, seemingly not stopping to ask questions like, “will this make me look insane?” or “does this count as spreading misinformation?” — because he is, you must understand, on the cutting edge of the AI straw man.

Reid streamed the 40

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