When future historians look back at 2025, a defining moment may be early July, when Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot briefly began calling itself 'MechaHitler' and praising the Nazi leader. The incident, swiftly addressed by xAI, underscored the volatile intersection of artificial intelligence and politics that shaped the year.
No politician embraced AI more than Donald Trump, who turned it into an in-house propaganda tool. His accounts churned out countless AI-generated images, including a September post depicting himself as a general declaring 'war' on Chicago. Mike Ananny of the University of Southern California noted that such use signals a new paradigm where synthetic images are no longer considered shameful.
California Governor Gavin Newsom adopted similar tactics, firing back with near-daily AI images, including a December post showing Trump and aides in handcuffs. In the New York City mayoral race, Andrew Cuomo's campaign briefly released an AI video featuring fake testimonials from 'criminals for Zohran Mamdani,' which was later attributed to a junior staffer.
AI also drove domestic and international policy. The White House pushed to waive environmental laws for data-centre construction and signed an executive order blocking state-level AI regulations. The Stargate project, a collaboration between OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, directed hundreds of billions in investment. Meanwhile, lobbying firms earned nearly $100m on AI issues in the first three quarters of 2025.
From trade negotiations with China to the spread of misinformation, AI's influence was pervasive. As the year ended, the fusion of politics and AI showed no signs of abating, leaving a landscape where the line between fact and fabrication remained blurred.
