Ex-Trump Campaign Manager Who Used Cambridge Analytica Launches Own AI Platform

Posted: May 8, 2024

Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale has launched a new artificial intelligence platform, Campaign Nucleus, to enhance digital strategies for conservative political campaigns. Parscale, who played a pivotal role in Donald Trump’s 2016 digital campaign strategy through targeted Facebook ads, introduced his latest venture, which proposes to use AI to revolutionize how political campaigns assess voter sentiment and target persuadable voters.

According to Parscale, Campaign Nucleus will employ AI to analyze data to identify voter sentiments, subsequently pinpointing voters who can be swayed and creating customized outreach efforts, such as emails. Moreover, the platform claims to boost the visibility of social media content by “anti-woke” influencers, although specific details on how it navigates social media algorithms remain vague.

This initiative follows Parscale’s involvement with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which accessed the personal data of approximately 87 million Facebook users without their consent to target U.S. voters. This scandal led to a substantial privacy settlement in 2018, costing Facebook $725 million and affecting nearly every U.S. Facebook user from mid-2007 to December 2022.

Despite Donald Trump’s mixed public statements on AI platforms, describing it as “scary” and “dangerous,” his campaign and other Republican entities have reportedly invested over $2.2 million in Campaign Nucleus. This sum also includes contributions from the Republican National Committee and related political groups.

While Trump’s current campaign expenses on Campaign Nucleus are a relatively minor portion of his political spending, Parscale actively seeks to expand his clientele. He has been working with various conservative leaders across Israel, the Balkans, and Brazil to implement his AI-driven strategies in their political campaigns.

However, Parscale is reportedly not involved in the day-to-day operations of Trump‘s latest presidential campaign. The platform’s operations in the U.S. are also linked to Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife and the newly appointed co-chair of the RNC, who previously consulted for a company co-owned by Parscale.

Despite its promises, Campaign Nucleus’s effectiveness and ethical implications remain controversial as it begins to influence political campaigning in the U.S. and abroad.