Despite how cringeworthy they are, political campaigns have spent $137 million on A.I.-generated ads for the midterms. And the lack of regulation on these ads is warping our sense of what’s real. The Opinion writer Rotimi Adeoye argues that while this kind of political satire falls under First Amendment protection, “you should be free to fake a politician, but you shouldn’t be free to hide the fact that you did.”

The latest Silicon Valley billionaire club is a $333 million political ad machine that is heavily engaged in next week’s elections.

© Ben Jones

The latest Silicon Valley billionaire club is a $333 million political ad machine that is heavily engaged in next week’s elections.

© Ben Jones

Campaigns and their allies are making their closing arguments, and they've spent more than the annual budgets of a handful of states doing it. Much of that money is aimed at voters' wallets, but the attacks are also getting more personal and more artificial. Lisa Desjardins explains.

Trump’s culture of cruelty spreads.

© Aleksey Kondratyev for The New York Times

Democrats are increasingly optimistic about the midterms. But they are being outspent by Republicans. And they are trying to compete in states that favored President Trump by large margins.

© Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press

The fallout from Vivek Ramaswamy’s brutal spot targeting his Democratic rival in the Ohio governor’s race showed that even in the Trump era, a political attack can be seen as going too far.

© Shannon Stapleton/Reuters