Gendebien mocks Stefanik's gubernatorial aspirations in AI-made video

Yahoo

10-07-2025

Jul. 10—Blake Gendebien, a Democrat running for New York's 21st Congressional District, has put out an artificially-generated video lambasting Congresswoman Elise M. Stefanik, his supposed competition for the seat.
Gendebien shared a roughly 43 second, completely artificially-generated video on social media Thursday, depicting a figure closely resembling Stefanik. R-Schuylerville, dancing around with a fully artificially generated song in the background.
"I'm considering, considering, considering, OK, am I running for Governor, I just won't say," the artificial voice sings to a jazz beat as a figure resembling Stefanik comes into view.
Scenes depict a female political figure, who at some points closely resembles Stefanik and at other times looks like another person entirely, shrugging in front of a stately home, smiling amid a gaggle with reporters, dancing on the House floor as an all-male group watches on and photographs her, and pulling a rabbit from a hat in front of a stage curtain. It also depicts her drinking from a water bottle labeled "Lawler's tears," a dig at her potential opponent for the GOP nomination, Hudson Valley Rep. Mike R. Lawler, R-Pearl River.
The main point is to highlight Stefanik's continued and very public consideration of a run for Governor. For months, her team has teased that she's thinking about running to be the Republican opponent to Governor Kathleen C. Hochul, or whoever the Democratic candidate is, next year. This comes after Stefanik came within days of a Senate confirmation to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a cabinet position in President Donald J. Trump's administration, but ultimately had her nomination pulled. After the President reversed the nomination and opted to keep Stefanik in the House, she returned to House GOP leadership in a less senior role and hasn't regained all of her committee memberships. She's reportedly had a tense relationship with her former underling-turned-boss Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., and now that the Republican budget and policy bill she was kept in the House to pass has become law, she's planning an exit from the chamber.
Polls show Stefanik is the favorite among Republicans to run next year — but that she'd have an uphill battle in the general election against Hochul. Stefanik has not yet declared her candidacy for Governor, but members of her team have told the press an announcement is "expected" for some time.
Not a single element of the video created by Gendebien mocking Stefanik ever existed in the real world — it was entirely computer generated, using new technologies built off of large language models, generative predictive platforms like ChatGPT.
A spokesperson for the Gendebien campaign did not specify which generative engine was used to create the video, nor how much the campaign paid to create it, only noting that was substantially cheaper than a real-world campaign advertisement would have cost.
The spokesman also said the campaign plans to do more of these advertisements in the future — as many as once per week for as long as Stefanik remains the NY-21 candidate and doesn't declare her intent to run for Governor — but that all videos will be clearly artificial.
"We wanted these to be as aggressive as possible, as clearly AI as possible, so nobody could get confused and think it was real," the Gendebien spokesperson said.
This appears to be the first time a candidate for U.S. Congress has used generative video tools, colloquially called "AI" or artificial intelligence, to create a campaign advertisement — it's also the first campaign season where many of these tools are readily available, capable of creating audio and video at the same time, and good enough to create a reasonably believable image.
These tools have rules restricting the artificially generated content they can create — while it's not evident which platform the Gendebien campaign is using, leading generative model company OpenAI's DALL-E image generator has rules that prevent it from generating a hyperrealistic image of a specific, identifiable person and only allows depictions in fictionalized, cartoon-like, abstract or satirical applications.
The Gendebien advertisement seems to follow those rules — the video does not appear photorealistic at any point, with the faces of both the Stefanik representation and the people in the background regularly morphing mid-scene. In both the Facebook and Twitter versions, the end-card that displays Gendebien's campaign logo, affirming that his campaign paid for the video, also includes a note indicating that "this ad was generated whole or substantially by artificial intelligence."
A spokesperson for Stefanik, Alex DeGrasse, said the advertisement is still a fabrication and a lie.
"The desperate far left Democrat who made history in the first week of his campaign by hiding his vicious attacks on local correctional officers and pro-illegal amnesty positions now makes history by using sexist, deceitful and shameful AI imagery smearing Congresswoman Stefanik in a digital ad," DeGrasse said.
He said that ads attacking Stefanik are unlikely to go over well in a district that has handily reelected her for over a decade.
"North country voters will swiftly demand his apology," DeGrasse continued. "And by the way, NY21 voters overwhelmingly support Elise running for governor if she decides to run, where she will demolish Kathy Hochul."
The reaction on social media was mixed — on Facebook, comments ranged from critical to supportive, with many people indicating they wanted Stefanik out of office, but many others expressing disappointment in the Gendebien campaign's use of artificially-generated video.
"Your message about Stefanik's absence in (the) north country is a great point, but it's undermined by the use of AI video," one comment reads. "Stefanik's real actions show her apathy towards her district, so why resort to an AI generated video? Will all due respect, this is disappointing."
DeGrasse also questioned if Gendebien supports Hochul for re-election, a question he has not yet answered.
"He won't say because he's a desperate, lying, losing candidate," DeGrasse concluded.