Texas Republican's AI campaign photo backfires spectacularly with flag blunder

A Texas state house candidate posted an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself for his campaign — but it didn't get received quite the way he may have hoped.

Tom Glass of McDade, running for the 17th House District, posted the picture alongside his announcement of a key endorsement, while fully admitting it to be AI-generated.

"United Republicans is proud to officially endorse Tom Glass for Texas State Representative in House District 17," stated the post. "Tom Glass is a proven constitutional conservative, respected grassroots leader, and dedicated Republican who has spent years defending Texas values, individual liberty, and accountable government. After a successful 27-year career with ExxonMobil, Tom committed his life to public service and conservative advocacy."

He added, "The only negative thing I have to say about this AI generated image is that it left off my Aggie ring!"

This image, however, drew swift mockery from political consultant and former Texas House chief of staff Joey Parr, who pointed out some obvious mistakes.

"Nice Chilean flag, @tomgglass," wrote Parr, indicating that the AI had mixed up the flag of Texas with the flag of Chile — both of which are red, white, and blue with a "lone star," but otherwise laid out very differently. "And the wrong capitol." The image showed the U.S. Capitol instead of the Texas Capitol.

"You should move to DC and try there," Parr added. "You might actually be able to fool folks into voting for you. #txlege"

AI-generated political images have been growing common as the technology has improved, and sometimes they have served a more sinister purpose, including deepfakes of politicians getting arrested.