AI experimentation is high risk, high reward for low-profile political campaigns
AP reported that a PAC opposing Shreveport mayor Adrian Perkins used an AI-generated attack ad that put his face on a chastened student in a principal's office. The case is a clean example of vivid, emotionally loaded presentation doing persuasive work that policy argument still had to do for itself. The fallacy here is Ad hominem: someone treats an attack on a person's character, motives, class, or biography as if it were a refutation of that person's argument. That matters here because character can matter when credibility itself is at issue, such as fraud, conflicts of interest, or proven dishonesty. That is the exact slip in this case: those personal facts are used instead of answering the actual reasons or evidence.
Associated Press · 2024-06-17
Key takeaways from a debate that featured tense clashes and closed with a Taylor Swift endorsement
AP's September 10, 2024 debate takeaway piece captures how often nationally watched debates pivot on baiting, reframing, crowd-pleasing jabs, and memorable lines rather than patient argument. It is a compact real-world lab for straw manning, redirection, and emotionally charged reframing. The fallacy here is Ad hominem: someone treats an attack on a person's character, motives, class, or biography as if it were a refutation of that person's argument. That matters here because character can matter when credibility itself is at issue, such as fraud, conflicts of interest, or proven dishonesty. That is the exact slip in this case: those personal facts are used instead of answering the actual reasons or evidence.
Associated Press · 2024-09-10
FACT FOCUS: Here's a look at some of the false claims made during Biden and Trump's first debate
AP's June 27, 2024 fact check of the first Biden-Trump debate is a dense collection of real argumentative shortcuts: statistics pulled loose from context, emotionally loaded immigration claims, and repeated assertions that did more rhetorical than evidential work. It is one of the best single-source stress tests in the library. The fallacy here is Ad hominem: someone treats an attack on a person's character, motives, class, or biography as if it were a refutation of that person's argument. That matters here because character can matter when credibility itself is at issue, such as fraud, conflicts of interest, or proven dishonesty. That is the exact slip in this case: those personal facts are used instead of answering the actual reasons or evidence.
Associated Press · 2024-06-27
In the June 27, 2024 Biden-Trump debate, policy exchanges repeatedly slid into attacks on each candidate's age, criminal exposure, or family rather than sustained engagement with the argument on the table. The fallacy here is Ad hominem: someone treats an attack on a person's character, motives, class, or biography as if it were a refutation of that person's argument. That matters here because character can matter when credibility itself is at issue, such as fraud, conflicts of interest, or proven dishonesty. That is the exact slip in this case: those personal facts are used instead of answering the actual reasons or evidence.
Online discussion of climate, vaccines, and AI policy often substitutes labels such as 'shill,' 'grifter,' or 'elitist' for any serious response to the evidence. The fallacy here is Ad hominem: someone treats an attack on a person's character, motives, class, or biography as if it were a refutation of that person's argument. That matters here because character can matter when credibility itself is at issue, such as fraud, conflicts of interest, or proven dishonesty. That is the exact slip in this case: those personal facts are used instead of answering the actual reasons or evidence.
