Continuing development of generative artificial intelligence is improving the look of deep-fake videos and they’re showing up in election messaging — UW-Madison journalism professor Michael Wagner called the situation a political free-for-all. For people seeking safety from domestic violence, Wisconsin has a new online process to apply for restraining orders — Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Jill Karofsky said the state court system stands ready to help those in need.

Michael Wagner
Professor, UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication

• Social media is rife with disinformation during the2026 election season. New and easy-to-use artificial intelligence tools can put real-sounding words in candidates’ mouths alongside possibly convincing video manipulation. In Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District race, Democratic candidate Rebecca Cooke responded by sending a cease-and-desist letter to Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden for his use of AI to generate video making it look like she was saying things she did not actually say. Wagner said it’s a confusing landscape for voters.
• Wagner: “It’s so much easier to encounter it, and it’s spreading from the world of politics into the world of entertainment. Our own alum, Charlie Berens, the famous comedian, is being — there are ads going around on people’s phones where it looks like he’s endorsing a candidate in the governor’s race, which he has not done and explicitly never does. And so, you know, people are — this is happening in politics but it’s bleeding everywhere, and we’re getting the information on social media where we think we might be getting news. We’re getting it on our phones and text messages. We’re getting it from trusted sources sometimes, and it’s very hard to discern what’s real.”

Chief Justice Jill Karofsky
Chief Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court

• A new online tool for survivors of domestic violence and harassment in Wisconsin allows them to file for a temporary restraining order without going to a courthouse in person. Karofksy said she advocated for the service to try to lower barriers to assistance, so that when people come to the court system looking for help, they can get the support they need.
• Karofsky:.”So just with just with their telephone, they can get on a website, and the website is ro.wicourts.gov. And when you get on that website, it walks you through in a very user-friendly way all the things that you need to be putting into a petition for a temporary restraining order in a harassment or a domestic violence case. If you forget to fill something out, it reminds you. If you fill something out incorrectly, it helps correct you. So yes, you don’t have to get in your car and go to the courthouse. You don’t have to get childcare. You don’t have to take a break or a leave from your job in order to do that. You don’t have to deal with parking. But in addition to that, it is a user-friendly application so that when you are finally filing your petition, it’s complete and thorough. and makes it much more likely that a judge or a commissioner isn’t going to say, ‘Hey, you didn’t fill this out correctly.'”

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