New data: dems and reps are increasingly using AI for their campaigns, and surprisingly, progressives are leading the pack! Kudos to Cornel West, the most AI-pilled candidate in the FEC database, who directs almost 10% of his spending towards Descript and OpenAI. These analyses are based on FEC data, and Claude proposed this research idea automagically to me, using a new automated research pipeline I've been testing out the past several weeks. We seem to be at another inflection point in the capabilities of AI---which is rapidly changing politics and how we study and understand it. AI can now help me identify, collect, and explore relevant political data without supervision. It can help campaigns, legislators, voters, and more. In this week's System Check I talk about more about this and how we might get it right.