the chatbot Resistbot to help draft and send messages to their elected leaders. It's hard to find statistics on how widely adopted tools like this are, but researchers have estimated that, as of 2024, about one in five consumer complaints to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was written with the assistance of AI.

OpenAI operates security programs to disrupt foreign influence operations and maintains restrictions on political use in its terms of service, but this is hardly sufficient to deter use of AI technologies for whatever purpose. And widely available free models give anyone the ability to attempt this on their own.

But this could change. The most ominous sign of AI's potential to disrupt elections is not the deepfakes and misinformation. Rather, it may be the use of AI by the Trump administration to surveil and punish political speech on social media and other online platforms. The scalability and sophistication of AI tools give governments with authoritarian intent unprecedented power to police and selectively limit political speech.

What About the Midterms?

These examples illustrate AI's pluripotent role as a force multiplier. The same technology used by different actors -- campaigners, organizers, citizens, and governments -- leads to wildly different impacts. We can't know for sure what the net result will be. In the end, it will be the interactions and intersections of these uses that matters, and their unstable dynamics will make future elections even more unpredictable than in the past.

For now, the decisions of how and when to use AI lie largely with individuals and the political entities they lead. Whether or not you personally trust AI to write an email for you or make a decision about you hardly matters. If a campaign, an interest group, or a fellow citizen trusts it for that purpose, they are free to use it.

It seems unlikely that Congress or the Trump administration will put guardrails around the use of AI in politics. AI companies have rapidly emerged as among the biggest lobbyists in Washington, reportedly dumping $100 million toward preventing regulation, with a focus on influencing candidate behavior before the midterm elections. The Trump administration seems open and responsive to their appeals.

The ultimate effect of AI on the midterms will largely depend on the experimentation happening now. Candidates and organizations across the political spectrum have ample opportunity -- but a ticking clock -- to find effective ways to use the technology. Those that do will have little to stop them from exploiting it.

This essay was written with Nathan E. Sanders, and originally appeared in The American Prospect.

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Rewiring Democracy is Coming Soon

[2025.10.13] My latest book, Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship, will be published in just over a week. No reviews yet, but you can read chapters 12 and 34 (of 43 chapters total).

You can order the book pretty much everywhere, and a copy signed by me here.

Please help spread the word. I want this book to make a splash when it's public. Leave a review on whatever site you buy it from. Or make a TikTok video. Or do whatever you kids do these days. Is anyone a Slashdot contributor? I'd like the book to be announced there.

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The Trump Administration's Increased Use of Social Media Surveillance

[2025.10.14] This chilling paragraph is in a comprehensive Brookings report about the use of tech to deport people from the US:

The administration has also adapted its methods of social media surveillance. Though agencies like the State Department have gathered millions of handles and monitored political discussions online, the Trump administration has been more explicit in who it's targeting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a new, zero-tolerance "Catch and Revoke" strategy, which uses AI to monitor the public speech of foreign nationals and revoke visas of those who "abuse [the country's] hospitality." In a March press conference, Rubio remarked that at least 300 visas, primarily student and visitor visas, had been revoked on the grounds that visitors are engaging in activity contrary to national interest. A State Department cable also announced a new requirement for student visa applicants to set their social media accounts to public -- reflecting stricter vetting practices aimed at identifying individuals who "bear hostile attitudes toward our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles," among oth
er criteria.

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements

[2025.10.14] This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak:

Nathan E. Sanders and I will be giving a book talk on Rewiring Democracy at the Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, on October 22, 2025, at noon ET.
Nathan E. Sanders and I will be speaking and signing books at the Cambridge Public Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, on October 22, 2025, at 6:00 PM ET. The event is sponsored by Harvard Bookstore. Nathan E. Sanders and I will give a virtual talk about our book Rewiring Democracy on October 23, 2025, at 1:00 PM ET. The event is hosted by Data & Society.
I'm speaking at the Ted Rogers School of Management in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Thursday, October 29, 2025, at 1:00 PM ET. Nathan E. Sanders and I will give a virtual talk about our book Rewiring Democracy on November 3, 2025, at 2:00 PM ET. The event is hosted by the Boston Public Library.
I'm speaking at the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg, France, November 5-7, 2025.
I'm speaking and signing books at the University of Toronto Bookstore in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on November 14, 2025. Details to come. Nathan E. Sanders and I will be speaking at the MIT Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, on December 1, 2025, at 6:00 pm ET. Nathan E. Sanders and I will be speaking at a virtual event hosted by City Lights on the Zoom platform, on December 3, 2025, at 6:00 PM PT. I'm speaking and signing books at the Chicago Public Library in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on February 5, 2026. Details to come. The list is maintained on this page.

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Since 1998, CRYPTO-GRAM has been a free monthly newsletter providing summaries, analyses, insights, and commentaries on security technology. To subscribe, or to read back issues, see Crypto-Gram's web page.

You can also read these articles on my blog, Schneier on Security.

Please feel free to forward CRYPTO-GRAM, in whole or in part, to colleagues and friends who will find it valuable. Permission is also granted to reprint CRYPTO-GRAM, as long as it is reprinted in its entirety.

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a security guru by the Economist. He is the author of over one dozen books -- including his latest, A Hacker's Mind -- as well as hundreds of articles, essays, and academic papers. His newsletter and blog are read by over 250,000 people. Schneier is a f

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