威斯康星州共和党众议员德里克·范·奥登（Derrick Van Orden）因在自己的竞选活动中使用了人工智能生成的虚假广告来攻击民主党对手丽贝卡·库克（Rebecca Cooke），因此收到了库克方面的停止侵权函。
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) was hit with a cease-and-desist letter from his Democratic opponent Rebecca Cooke after the lawmaker aired AI deepfake campaign s about her.
这封函件中写道：“这些广告不仅有损您的公职尊严，而且根据威斯康星州的诽谤法，这些虚假广告也填补了该州法律在打击人工智能生成虚假视频方面的空白。”库克将这封函件分享到了社交媒体上。
“Not only are these ads beneath the dignity of your office, but Wisconsin’s common law of defamation fills the gaps yet remaining in Wisconsin’s statutory protections against fake AI videos,” reads the letter, which Cooke shared on social media.
库克的律师指出，这些虚假广告“破坏了我们的民主进程”，并称这种诽谤行为正是选民们早已厌倦的。函件进一步指责范·奥登的竞选团队发布这些广告的动机“显然是为了损害库克的声誉，从而谋取政治利益”。
Cooke’s lawyer wrote the videos “undermine our democratic process” and said it was “the exact kind of mudslinging voters are tired of.”
作为回应，范·奥登的竞选团队在社交媒体上发布了一段由人工智能生成的虚假视频，将库克描绘成一只穿着美国民主党社会主义者（Democratic Socialists of America）标志的红色小鸟。此外，他们还针对库克的财务信息披露进行了攻击，指出库克除了担任服务员外，还通过政治咨询工作赚取额外收入。
“You are indisputably posting videos falsely conveying that Ms. Cooke has made particular statements,” the letter continued, accusing Van Orden’s campaign of airing the ads “for the patently obvious purpose of harming Ms. Cooke’s reputation for your own political advantage.”Van Orden responded to Cooke’s letter on social media with another AI-generated deep-faked video of his Democratic opponent as a red bird with a Democratic Socialists of America shirt. His other ads targeted Cooke’s financial disclosures which revealed that she earned additional income on top of her waitress salary as a political consultant.
范·奥登的竞选团队在给当地媒体WEAU的声明中表示：“丽贝卡·库克再次因撒谎而自取其辱，现在正试图掩盖事实。她真正担心的是人们终于看清了她的真面目：一个为了权力不惜说任何话、做任何事的不可信任的政治骗子。”
“Rebecca Cooke is embarrassing herself because she got busted lying again and is now trying to cover it up,” Van Orden’s campaign wrote in a statement to local outlet WEAU. “The only thing Cooke is really concerned about is that people are finally getting to see her for what she is: an untrustworthy political hack who is willing to say or do anything for power.”
目前尚不清楚范·奥登是否违反了威斯康星州的诽谤法——该法律规定，任何“明知内容虚假却仍故意传播虚假信息的人”都将承担法律责任。根据《库克政治报告》（Cook Political Report）的评估，范·奥登与库克之间的这场竞选竞争被视作威斯康星州中部和西部地区一个“胜负难料的”众议院席位争夺战。
It is unclear whether Van Orden violated Wisconsin defamation statutes, which makes it illegal for any person “with knowledge that it is false” to publicize “any false and unauthorized .”The race between Van Orden and Cooke has been classified as a “toss-up” House seat in central and western Wisconsin, according to Cook Political Report.
2024年，库克仅以1.1万多票之差败给范·奥登，但民主党人找到了一个新的攻击角度：这位议员与特朗普总统的密切关系。据美国贸易代表办公室称，2025年加拿大是威斯康星州最大的贸易伙伴，而特朗普与加拿大之间持续升级的关税战使其支持率在9月降至最低点。
Cooke lost to Van Orden in 2024 by just over 11,000 votes, but Democrats targeted a new angle: the lawmaker’s ties to President Trump. Trump’s popularity slipped to its lowest point in September amid his ongoing tariff war with Canada, which is Wisconsin’s largest trading partner in 2025, according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office.
民主党人还针对范·奥登曾在2021年1月6日国会山遭袭事件之前出席特朗普总统集会一事展开攻击。
Democrats have also targeted Van Orden’s appearance at President Trump’s rally before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.