AI-Generated Campaign Video May Violate New York Election Law
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor, posted an artificial intelligence-generated video that may violate a 2024 state law requiring disclaimers on deceptive political content. The video mimicked Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani using AI-synthesized voices, but Blakeman's campaign initially posted it without disclosing the AI creation.
The video, released Friday, criticized the two officials over green energy mandates by recreating them in the style of the animated series South Park. Synthesized versions of Hochul and Mamdani appeared at a town hall making statements they never actually made. "Higher utility costs are actually a good thing because they encourage behavior change," the AI-generated Mamdani says. The voices sounded authentic, but the words were fabricated.
What the Law Requires
New York's 2024 budget included an amendment to election law defining "materially deceptive media" to include "any technological representation of speech or conduct" created or modified "by or with software, machine learning, artificial intelligence or any other computer-generated or technological means." The law mandates a disclaimer that audio, video, and images have been manipulated.
The statute includes exceptions for parody and satire. After inquiries, Blakeman's campaign claimed the video qualified as satire and added the tag "Made with AI" to the social media post. However, the disclaimer does not appear within the video itself as the law specifies.
Legal Questions Remain Unsettled
The provision is new and untested, meaning a judge would ultimately determine whether the video violated the statute. Election attorney Sarah Steiner said the satire label alone cannot shield controversial content from scrutiny. She noted that while political observers might recognize the audio as fabricated, average viewers could reasonably believe it represents authentic statements.
"If you have to be that discerning to understand that it isn't real, that's misleading," Steiner said. "It's just misleading."
Peter Loge, director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication at George Washington University, said the focus on AI obscures the central issue: deception itself. "The means of deception matters less than the deception," he said. "The ad doesn't have any proof the governor or mayor said those things, which should raise questions among voters."
Loge warned that overemphasizing AI as a threat could undermine democratic discourse. "If everyone thinks everything they don't like is AI generated, but that everything they like is true, then we can't have the honest conversations that democracy relies on," he said.
Political Response
The state Democratic Party issued a statement criticizing Blakeman's campaign. "It's obvious why Bruce Blakeman's campaign is centered around lying and faking," said state Democratic Party spokesperson Addison Dick.
For legal professionals navigating compliance with emerging AI regulations, understanding AI for Legal applications and the specifics of Generative Video technology is increasingly essential as election law continues to evolve.
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