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It is fraud. Simple as that.
Any candidate for public office who uses artificial intelligence to create images showing their opponent in a bad light, saying things they didn’t say should be considered the problem and not the solution when voters go to the polls this fall.
Exhibit A is Republican candidate for Congress Anthony Constantino.
Constantino posted a deepfake video of Democratic opponent Blake Gendebien sayng things he did not say.
“As Democrat I feel it’s my duty to proudly support rape, human trafficking and pedophilia.”
This was not satire, this was not funny, this was defamation and a disgusting use of this new technology. It is a horrific affront to truth, democracy and the American way and Constantino should be ashamed, but he is not since he already defended it.
Gendebien rightfully characterized the video as “vile.”
The video goes on to say in a text disclaimer so it squares with New York law, “This video has been manipulated. Blake Gendebien made an AI ad about Elise Stefanik. We made one for him.”
Gendebien did make an ad of an image of Rep Elise Stefanik dancing around that made light of Stefanik’s recent politics that he claimed was satire. I believe this was also a poor decision on Gendebien’s part, but it does not go nearly as far as Constantino’s deepfake.
Constantino went on to defend the video as having content that was accurate.
“Everything in the video was an honest representation of what Blake Gendebien signed up to support,” Constantino told WAMC’s Pat Bradley.
Any sensible person knows there is not a politician on the planet who says they support pedophilia and for Constantino to say those words out loud should be of concern to every voter in the 21st Congressional District.
It means he will say anything to win.
We know how this goes.
Each campaign will try to outdo the other in a race to the bottom with the general public left disgusted and unwilling to even go to the polls.
There ought to be a law against this, well, there ought to be a stronger law.
New York’s law only requires that you say that the ad used artificial intelligence to create the ad. There should be accountability and strict fine for fiction.
For years, I’ve complained that truth in advertising laws should apply to political campaign ads, but no politicians will ever sign off on that.
For several weeks, I managed to have a dialogue with Constantino where I asked him questions about how he would govern without response. I haven’t heard from Anthony since July 21 after asking him a series of questions about how he would help residents in the 21st Congressional District.
On Saturday, I sent him another message after watching the video he distributed about Gendebien saying things he didn’t say. I wrote:
Anthony,
I’m really shocked that your campaign has gone down the road of artificial intelligence and portrayed your opponent saying things he did not say. Isn’t that fraud? Isn’t that trying to get elected on false pretenses? I’d really like to hear your defense of this? This seems to go to the very heart of your character. Very shocking.
Ken Tingley
I don’t expect to hear back from him.
What I’m looking for from both candidates is an old-fashioned campaign where they pledge not to use AI and instead engage in a series of face-to-face community forums in each of the 12 counties in the district before Election Day to explain how they will make the lives of their constituents better.
I doubt there is much chance of that either.
Editor’s Note: Here is WCAX-TV’s coverage of the deepfake video:
I suspect there’s a sizable chunk of voters in the 21st Congressional District who still don’t know who is running for Elise Stefanik’s congressional seat in November.
So while it is still very early, it was shocking to see the SurveyUSA poll done for WNYT-TV NewsChannel 13 in Albany that showed Democrat Blake Gendebien with a four-point lead, 43-39, with independent candidate Chris Schimdt getting 5 percent.
What was even weirder was the Constantino campaign’s reaction to the poll.
The Time Union reported that Constantino condemned the poll on social media and accused the news station of colluding with the Democratic Party. He said WNYT should be investigated by the Federal Communications Commission.
“This should be illegal and WNYT-13 should be swiftly reprimanded by the FCC to the fullest extent possible,” Constantino wrote in the post. “This ‘story’ is a clear violation of journalistic ethics and (an) example of rampant political corruption.”
It sounded to me like Constantino had never heard of the First Amendment and freedom of the press.
A spokesman for the Constantino campaign told the T-U that the polls was a “scam” and “fraudulent,” but did not explain why they believed that.
The Time Union published a story Sunday that congressional candidate Anthony Constantino has a personal connection with two men, Thomas Marcellino and Ricardo Henderson, accused by the Schenectady Police Department of kidnapping, assault and unlawful imprisonment.
The men are accused of kidnapping a 43-year-old man, beating him and holding him against his will.
The T-U reported that the Republican congressional candidate has not been accused of having any role in the criminal case. One man operated the mixed marshall arts promotion agency Cage Wars before Constantino bought it. That man also helped train Constantino when he was a fighter in Mexico.
“Constantino previously told the Times Union that prior to the acquisition to Cage Wars, he had spent at least $750,000 as a Cage Wars sponsor, and described Marcellino as a personal friend.”
The other man has had his music videos sponsored and produced by Constantino’s company Sticker Mule with the T-U reporting that Constantino appears in in the background of one video and received a “shoutout” near the end of the song.
Sticker Mule had paid that man around $600,000 over the past two years for music contract services.
Constantino’s campaign told the T-U that neither man had ever been paid to work for Constantino in the race for Congress.
Each year I look forward to kicking off the NFL season with Hard Knocks on HBO.
The reality show follows one NFL team through a month of training camp where the curtain is peeled back to see how the coaches and players prepare for the season.
It is often quite revealing, such as when it showed how my team, the New York Giants, let running back Saquan Barkley slip away to the Philadelphia Eagles while getting nothing in return.
This year, Hard Knocks is following the defending Super Bowl champs, the Seattle Seahawks.
Its coach, Mike Macdonald, repeatedly promotes a mantra of “violence” to his team. Yes, I know football is a violent game, but to promote that violence seems a little, well, uncivilized.
This past week, Hard Knocks showed the Seahawks grappling with whether to sign a player cut by the Detroit Lions because he faces felony charges of kidnapping and robbery.
While they seemed concerned about the charges, the overriding concern seemed to be whether he could help them win another Super Bowl.
I guess he met the “violence” criteria.
A Siena Research Institute poll released last week found that 60 percent of New York voters oppose the way ICE agents have been deployed to arrest illegal immigrants.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has asked local law enforcement to end their agreements to help ICE.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and his play “The Last American Newspaper” is being produced by Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany Sept. 25 to Oct. 18 . He currently lives in both Queensbury, N.Y. and New Orleans, La.
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