Andrew Cuomo's AI-Generated Campaign Ad Sparks Controversy and Criticism

Mamdani Ridicules Andrew Cuomo’s New AI-Generated Campaign Ad

Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor who resigned in disgrace in 2021, launched a new political ad on Wednesday filled with AI-generated depictions of himself doing various jobs. Cuomo is running for mayor of New York as an independent in a long-shot bid against Zohran Mamdani, who instantly pounced on the ad. Mamdani ridiculed the video but suggested that maybe an AI Cuomo would be better than the real thing. "I'm Andrew Cuomo and I could pretend to do a lot of jobs. But I know what I know and I know what I don't know. And I do know how to make government work," Cuomo says in the new ad. AI-generated video in the ad shows Cuomo driving a subway train, standing on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and holding a curtain open on Broadway, before the real Cuomo, who's talking directly to the camera, gets into what he promises to do as mayor. "I'll hire 5,000 new cops to partner with local community groups and keep our families safe. And we'll get the homeless off the streets and into the help they desperately need," Cuomo continues. "There are a lot of jobs I can't do. But I'm ready to be your mayor on day one," the real Cuomo says as viewers see an AI-generated video of him washing windows. The suggestion seems to be that Mamdani is only pretending to know how to be mayor and that New York needs a guy like Cuomo who's held a high-level position. Mamdani has served as a member of the New York State Assembly since 2021, representing a district that includes Queens. The new Cuomo ad has received about 600 views on YouTube despite being up for over 4 hours at the time of this writing. The ad has just 28,000 views on X and 15,000 on Instagram. Oddly, it doesn't appear to have been posted on Facebook, presumably the social network that his aging target audience is spending the most time on. Mamdani, who's leading Cuomo in the polls, mocked the former governor on Bluesky, first invoking the fears over AI's role in taking jobs away from artists and video production staff. "In a city of world-class artists and production crew hunting for the next gig, Andrew Cuomo made a TV ad the same way he wrote his housing policy: with AI," Mamdani wrote on Bluesky. "Then again, maybe a fake Cuomo is better than the real one?" the Democratic candidate continued. Cuomo resigned as governor in Oct. 2021 after an investigation by the state Attorney General found that he sexually harassed at least 11 women, including state employees. Mamdani won the Democrats' New York mayoral primary and is polling at 47%, according to the latest available poll conducted by Fox News from Sept. 18-22. That same poll shows Cuomo at 29% and Curtis Sliwa at 11%. Eric Adams was at 7% in that poll, though he's since dropped out. AI video has swamped social media platforms like X, Facebook, and Instagram in recent years, but it's still relatively rare to see it used in official campaign ads. Neither President Donald Trump nor Democratic challenger Kamala Harris deployed AI campaign ads in any serious way during the 2024 presidential election. One of the most bizarre recent examples of an AI video used outside of an official campaign comes from President Donald Trump who, posted a video over the weekend about a conspiracy theory known as "med beds." Adherents to the QAnon worldview believe that med beds can magically restore anyone to perfect health and even regenerate lost limbs. And Trump posted a video of himself to Truth Social as an AI figure promoting med beds as something that was coming soon. Trump's account later deleted the absolutely wild video. Cuomo's new ad includes a text disclaimer at the bottom reading, "This political communication was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence." And it seems like Cuomo isn't trying to trick anyone with his use of AI video in this instance. But it's still an interesting choice in the current environment. Countless cultural commentators have written about how AI has emerged as the aesthetic of Trumpism and the far-right. But that might make sense, given the allies Cuomo has assembled. Trump has clearly shown a preference for Cuomo over Mamdani.

Cuomo's AI-Generated Ad Roasted by Mamdani

Disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo just doesn't get it. After numerous sexual harassment claims, he was forced to resign from his post in August 2021. Then, after running a hopelessly out of date comeback campaign, he lost New York's Democratic primary in July of this year. Yet the political nepo baby refuses to accept reality, continuing his run as an independent. This week, Cuomo's campaign debuted an advertisement in which clearly AI-generated clips show him him doing various jobs someone from upstate New York might regard as quintessentially New York: driving the subway, stagehand work, trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and washing high-rise windows. In the ad, Cuomo admits he may not be cut out for the aforementioned roles, but claims he's ready and qualified to be mayor. Cuomo's ostensible target was his opponent Zohran Mandani, who he's seeking to paint as young and inexperienced. But Mamdani took to Instagram and shared screencaps of the Cuomo ad, captioned with a ringing retort. "In a city of world-class artists and production crew hunting for the next gig, Andrew Cuomo made a TV ad the same way he wrote his housing policy: with AI," he wrote. "Then again, maybe a fake Cuomo is better than the real one?" Mamdani's post had some deeper-level digs as well; it was even geotagged in Westchester County, a suburb where Cuomo lives outside of New York City limits. Whether Cuomo is forced to leverage AI because no one will work for him or because he can't stand the thought of setting foot in the subway system, expect more of it if he wins the race; he was embarrassed earlier this year when his housing plan showed clear signs of having been produced using ChatGPT. He isn't alone with the use of AI in politics, though. President Donald Trump, for instance, has faced similar allegations on his executive orders, and has leaned into sharing AI-generated clips of his opponents that are often tinged with racist tropes. As the race for NYC's mayor forges forward, the New York Times tracker shows Mamdani maintaining a double-digit lead over Cuomo in most polls.

Cuomo uses AI ad to depict himself driving subway, on floor of NYSE

New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo used artificial intelligence (AI) to depict himself driving the subway, working as a stagehand and standing on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in his first advertisement of the general election. "I'm Andrew Cuomo, and I could pretend to do a lot of jobs," Cuomo says in the 30-second spot, as an AI-generated version of the former New York governor is depicted performing various roles. "But I know what I know, and I know what I don't know. And I do know how to make government work," he continued, adding, "There are a lot of jobs I can't do, but I'm ready to be your mayor on day one." The mid-six-figure ad buy, which is set to air on broadcast, cable, streaming and social media, features a disclaimer over the AI portions, noting that "this political communication was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence." Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani quickly took aim at Cuomo's use of the technology. "In a city of world-class artists and production crew hunting for the next gig, Andrew Cuomo made a TV ad the same way he wrote his housing policy: with AI," he wrote on the social platform X. "Then again, maybe a fake Cuomo is better than the real one?" Mamdani holds a double-digit lead over Cuomo in most polls, according to a New York Times tracker. The New York City mayoral election is now a three-way race between Mamdani, Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, after incumbent Mayor Eric Adams dropped out over the weekend. Cuomo's ad comes as politicians are increasingly experimenting with AI. President Trump has repeatedly shared AI-generated content throughout his second term, posting images of himself as everything from a pope to a "Star Wars" Jedi. In recent days, the president has faced backlash for sharing AI videos of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) that Democrats and outside observers have criticized as racist.

Andrew Cuomo drops AI-generated ad showing him as window washer, MTA...

Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo dropped an AI-generated campaign ad depicting him painfully trying his hand at different jobs, including an MTA subway driver, a window washer and a stockbroker. In the $45,000 ad buy first aired Wednesday, Cuomo's team used artificial intelligence to portray the mayoral candidate at the helm of a city train, hanging off a skyscraper and on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. "I'm Andrew Cuomo, and I could pretend to do a lot of jobs," the AI version of the former governor says in the 30-second spot. "But I know what I know, and I know what I don't know. And I do know how to make government work," he says. "There are a lot of jobs I can't do, but I'm ready to be your mayor on day one." The Cuomo team touted the bizarre promo in a press release, calling it "one of the first positive and most visible uses of AI in paid political advertising." But the spot drew some cringe reactions on social media, with some users blasting it as "slop" and calling Cuomo out for not filming the video for real. "This is a bad ad for Cuomo and somehow an even worse ad for the use of AI?" quipped political operative Amanda Litman, of the progressive group "Run for Something," in a post on X. "I think this Cuomo ad is a perfect example for why I hate A.I so much. Imagine if Cuomo had filmed himself in front of an actual film set or even a green screen doing this jobs. It would've been funny! Endearing, even! But here, it's just slop, pathetic, and sad," added YouTuber Nick Poulimenakos. Cuomo's rivals in the November mayoral election also piled on -- with front-runner Zohran Mamdani drawing parallels between the advertisement and Cuomo's housing plan, which was scrutinized for being partially written by ChatGPT. "In a city of world-class artists and production crews hunting for the next gig, Andrew Cuomo made a TV ad the same way he wrote his housing policy: with AI," the socialist candidate wrote on X. "Then again, maybe a fake Cuomo is better than the real one?," he jokingly added. GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa also ripped the ad during an unrelated press conference outside of the former governor's residence in Manhattan on Thursday. "I'm looking at the squeegee and it's not even a squeegee!" Sliwa exclaimed, referring to a scene where AI Cuomo is washing windows on the scaffolding of a high-rise building. "I think so many people looked at his AI and laughed," Sliwa said. "That's probably why he got a lot of clicks, because people are busy laughing at how ridiculous it looks. "He's never going to be hip and happening." Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi emphasized that the video was meant to be taken as a "humorous attempt" to break through to his audience. But he wasn't laughing at the jibes from Cuomo's opponents. "The supreme irony is that Curtis Sliwa is an Abject clown," Azzopardi said, "and there's nothing funny about Zohran Mamdani's attempts to legalize prostitution. He's a clown too."