Called Out for AI Slop, Andrew Cuomo Blames One-Armed Man
Looking for a patsy, ex-New York governor and current NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo found one: a one-armed man.
As the New York Times reports, the aide in question, longtime Cuomo adviser Paul Francis, admitted to using ChatGPT to craft the disgraced former governor's new, typo-riddled housing policy plan.
"It's very hard to type with one hand," Francis, who had his left arm amputated in 2012 following a sudden illness, told the NYT. "So I dictate, and what happens when you dictate is that sometimes things get garbled. And try as I might to see them when I proofread, sometimes they get by me."
The "things" that "got by" the career wonk include, but are not limited to, a headline with the term "objectively" misspelled as "Bbjectively," the mask-off claim that rent control is "symbolic," and a link to a 2024 Gothamist article that cited ChatGPT as the sourced used to pull it up.
Though the 29-page policy document has since been updated to remove its more glaring mistakes, an archived version of the original thing shows the embarrassing errors in all their glory.
The excuse also doesn't quite add up. There's nothing wrong with using dictation software, but why would that cause blatant spelling errors or a reference to ChatGPT? And why wasn't someone else reviewing the document before pushing it out? All told, it sounds a lot like a fictional explanation crafted by a political campaign to deter critics by throwing a man with a disability under the bus.
Prior to Francis' admission in the NYT, the Cuomo campaign went back and forth with local news website Hell Gate as to whether ChatGPT was used to write the document.
After an initial non-denial from spokesperson Rich Azzopardi that thanked the outlet for "pointing out the grammar" errors, followed up with a longer explanation about the use of voice recognition software, and then claimed that the person who wrote the policy paper insisted they didn't use AI to write it.
In a statement to Hell Gate, housing advocate Cea Weaver used the ChatGPT-generated errors to clown on the scandalous ex-governor.
"[Cuomo's] campaign is so out of touch that he is outsourcing housing policy to a robot," Weaver, the director of the New York State Tenant Bloc, told the site. "But New Yorkers don't need ChatGPT to tell us that we need a rent freeze — it's 'bbjective.'"
Obviously, this is far from the first time a politician has been caught using AI — and with the way things are going, it certainly won't be the last.
More on inapproprite AI uses: Judge Goes Ballistic When Man Shows AI-Generated Video in Court
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
2 New York Representatives Are Denied Access to ICE Facility
Federal officials prevented two members of Congress on Sunday from entering an immigration detention facility in Manhattan where the representatives were seeking to investigate reports of overcrowding, stifling heat and migrants sleeping on bathroom floors. The representatives, Adriano Espaillat and Nydia Velázquez, both Democrats from New York, said officials at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building had denied them access to the 10th-floor detention area because it was a 'sensitive facility.' The building, at 26 Federal Plaza, a few blocks from City Hall, has been the site of recent protests against the transport of migrants there by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. It also houses immigration courts where ICE has been making arrests in recent weeks. Members of Congress are allowed special access to any Department of Homeland Security facility, including those operated by ICE, as long as they give at least 24 hours' advance notice, according to visitation guidelines. 'Today, ICE violated all of our rights,' Representative Espaillat said at a news conference on Sunday after being turned away. 'We deserve to know what's going on on the 10th floor.' He added, 'If there's nothing wrong, there's no reason we shouldn't be able to go in to see it.' Representative Velázquez said she was outraged about being turned away. 'Our duty is to supervise any federal building,' she said. 'This is not Russia; this is the United States of America,' she added. 'The president of the United States is not a king.' A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, said Sunday evening that the lawmakers had shown up unannounced. ICE officials had told them, she said, that they 'would be happy to give them a tour with a little more notice, when it would not disrupt ongoing law enforcement activities and sensitive law enforcement items could be put away.' The representatives arrived a day after dozens of protesters at the complex tried to block ICE vehicles carrying migrants. Many held up signs, including some that said 'Stop Deportations!' and 'To Get Our Neighbors You Have To Get Through Us!' That demonstration erupted in a clash with police officers, some of whom blasted protesters with pepper spray. The police said 22 people were taken into custody. Most were issued summonses or asked to return to court at a later date, according to a spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney. 'This is the nightmare scenario we've been taught to fear since childhood,' said John Mark Rozendaal, 64, of Manhattan, who has protested at the building over the last three weeks. We need to 'stand up to the repression that's coming into our nation,' he added. Santiago Castro, 28, a student who is from Colombia, said he had come to the demonstration for a personal reason: ICE agents arrested his father in Manhattan on Tuesday. Mr. Castro said he was demonstrating 'for my family.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Cuomo the accused sex harasser targets comptroller foe over dog-neutering, smoking-ban suits
Accused serial sex harasser and mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo has tried to make hay of city lawsuits involving Comptroller foe Brad Lander over issues such as dog-neutering. Cuomo leveled his attack against Lander during Wednesday's mayoral debate, and the 15 lawsuits he tied to the city moneyman were later listed in a Thursday social-media post by his campaign. But in all but one of the lawsuits, Lander was only a nominally listed defendant, with many of the suits filed against the City Council, a review by The Post found. And none of the suits accused Lander of personal wrongdoing, unlike some of the accusations levied at Cuomo. The suits tangentially involving Lander span three mayoral administrations and include legal fights over a pro-smoking group fighting smoking bans, dog-neutering laws and a pair of shelter residents filing pro-se lawsuits over asbestos allegations. Cuomo rep Rich Azzopardi told The Post that his boss's comments on the debate stage were about Lander taking issue with the state footing the former governor's legal bills, pointing out that taxpayers have paid for suits against the comptroller, too. Cuomo — who resigned as governor in August 2021 over sex-harassment and COVID nursing-home controversies — has denied all of the accusations against him. 'Lander has amnesia,' Azzopardi said, adding that the substance of the suits was irrelevant and that the accusations against Cuomo have faced difficulties in court. But Lander rep Dora Pekec said substance is the issue. 'While Brad Lander got sued by the cigarette lobby for protecting our children from secondary smoke, predator Andrew Cuomo got sued by numerous employees for sexual abuse, faced looming impeachment, and forced taxpayers to spend $60 million trying to make these scandals go away,' Pekec said in a statement. 'No wonder Cuomo keeps lying about both of their records,' Pekec said. Lindsey Boylan, one of the first of a dozen women who have accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, said, 'Cuomo will lie and smear every day of the week to serve himself. 'That's what abusers do.' While Cuomo's debate-night comment began as a response to Lander citing the more than $60 million taxpayers have been forced to shell out for lawsuits regarding sexual harassment and COVID allegations against the ex-gov, Cuomo's comments quickly turned to the legal substance of the cited lawsuits. 'He was sued 15 times,' Cuomo said at the debate. 'He was sued by parents of the disabled. He was sued by homeless providers who said he was unaware, he didn't do anything about the safety conditions. He was sued by people who said he mismanaged the pension fund.' Lander repeatedly said, 'False, false' as Cuomo spoke. The only cited suit that challenged an official decision by Lander was over his move to divest the city's pension fund from fossil fuels — with a state appeal court upholding the suit's dismissal in March. The rest of the suits have next to nothing to do with Lander as comptroller — or City Council member. One was a challenge to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's indoor smoking ban by a pro-smoking group, whose website states their mission is to 'end the discrimination against smokers by exposing the anti-smoking lies' and insisting 'smoking is normal.' Other suits include zoning fights, a law requiring pet stores to sell neutered pooches and a lawsuit by a disability advocacy group over emergency preparedness — which lists neither City Council nor Lander as a defendant. When Cuomo said Lander was 'sued by the parents of the disabled,' he was referring to a pair of suits filed against the city's Education Department — a routine way to secure funding to attend a specialized school for kids with brain injuries. And the suits by 'homeless providers' were a pair of nearly identical pro-se lawsuits filed against the city Department of Homeless Services by residents of a Fort Washington shelter over COVID-19 and asbestos claims. In both suits, Lander is listed nominally as the comptroller, typical for lawsuits filed against the city. A search of federal court records show that Lander has actually been sued more than 15 times — with 19 results as a civil defendant. By comparison, Cuomo appears 1,009 times, stretching back to his time with the federal government.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Congress members denied entry to Manhattan ICE facility, claim overcrowding, unsanitary conditions
Two members of Congress were blocked Sunday from entering an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Manhattan after trying to inspect it amid widespread detainments and claims of unbearable heat and overcrowding — including detainees being forced to sleep on bathroom floors. New York Democrat Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Nydia Velazquez tried to perform a drop-in check at a temporary detainment facility at 26 Federal Plaza in Tribeca Sunday afternoon, but said they were illegally denied entry by an official from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The pair argued that as elected officials, they have the legal right to inspect the facility unannounced. 'This is not Russia,' Rep. Velazquez said. 'This is the United States of America where we have three branches of government. The president of the United States is not a king. And we, as members of Congress, have the duly constitutional responsibility to exercise oversight in a place like this. What is it that they are hiding?' The congressional reps tried inspecting the facility — where hundreds of immigrants are reportedly being held after being swept up in recent ICE raids — after receiving reports of unbearable heat and overcrowding to the point that detainees have been forced to sleep on bathroom floors, according to the New York Immigration Coalition. 'We are members or Congress, duly elected. Our constitutional right and our constitutional duty is to have oversight over these agencies and to ensure that we supervise and ascertain whether the conditions in these facilities are just or not, whether they're inhumane or not,' Rep. Espailllat said. 'Today ICE violated all of our rights because as an extension, we are here to defend your rights, the rights of the American people to have access and oversight to the federal buildings to ensure that everything is done correctly and in accordance to the law,' he said. 'We were denied that right today, a basic civil right, a constitutional right, that we as members of congress are here to uphold. So we will continue to come back. 'We will continue to come back until we are allowed to have access to the 10th floor.'
