HISPI Project Cerebellum HISPI PROJECT CEREBELLUM

The Use of AI-Generated Deepfakes in NY Mayor-Elect's Campaign: Potential Misinformation

November 5, 2025

In New York, accounts linked to 'Citizens Against Mamdani' reportedly disseminated AI-generated videos, allegedly featuring fictional constituents criticizing mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani across Instagram, TikTok, and X. Some of these videos were found to display a Sora watermark, and at least one clip was assessed as highly likely to be a deepfake by forensic reviewers. The campaign seemed to simulate grassroots opposition and attracted significant engagement.

This incident underscores the need for responsible AI, particularly in the realm of misinformation prevention. Through JOIN US, learn more about HISPI Project Cerebellum TAIM's efforts in maintaining safe and secure AI and promoting trustworthy AI governance.
Alleged deployer
unknown-social-media-account-operators, unknown-disinformation-actors-targeting-zohran-mamdani, unknown-disinformation-actors, citizens-against-mamdani-social-media-accounts, citizens-against-mamdani
Alleged developer
unknown-voice-cloning-technology-developers, unknown-deepfake-technology-developers, openai
Alleged harmed parties
zohran-mamdani, voters-in-new-york, general-public-of-new-york, epistemic-integrity, electoral-integrity, american-social-media-users

AI governance case studies

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Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1425

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.