Published August 12, 2026 at 1:52 PM HST

A campaign ad for Hawaiʻi's 1st Congressional House District has raised concerns for its possible use of artificial intelligence.

The concerns were raised over a commercial run by independent candidate Nathan Berning against U.S. Rep. Ed Case, a Democrat.

Alongside graphic imagery promoting an anti-abortion platform, the ad also featured a short clip of what appears to be a young Haunani-Kay Trask, a Hawaiian scholar and outspoken activist who died in 2021.

HPR spoke directly with Berning about Trask's apparent appearance in his commercial. He said he was unaware of who Trask was.

He claimed the woman in question was portrayed by an actor whose resemblance to Trask was coincidental. He said the concerns would be sent to his campaign manager in Tennessee.

HPR

Hawaiʻi Congressional District 1 candidate Nathan Berning, seen in a campaign commercial.

HPR reached out to state Sen. Karl Rhoads about the strong concerns regarding ethics and communication surrounding deepfake technology.

“It's not just an insult to the family, of course, although they're the ones who feel it most acutely,” Rhoads said about the apparent portrayal of Trask. “It's a problem for all of us, and we can't trust our own senses to know whether something is real or not.”

Rhoads will be retiring after the end of his term this year. As a legislator, he authored several bills to regulate AI, such as House Bill 2137, which “prohibits certain harmful uses of realistic digital limitations generated by artificial intelligence,” he explained.

“It does provide civil remedies for individuals injured by unauthorized AI-generated realistic digital limitations, and I think that one might actually apply,” Rhoads said.

With several recent bills being passed to regulate consumer AI technology, the need for safeguards is imminent, Rhoads said.

“AI is here. It's not just over the horizon, and you're not going to worry about it in a few years," he said. "But now the problems with it are here, and we've got to start grappling with them.”

HPR reached out to the Case campaign team and Trask's family for comment.

This story aired on The Conversation on Aug. 12, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.