Manhattan Democratic boss Keith Wright says tape of him bashing Harlem pol Inez Dickens is AI-fake: ‘A new low’
Manhattan Democratic boss Keith Wright said a recording of him bashing Assemblywoman Inez Dickens that was posted online was an AI-generated fake — and called for legislative action to regulate the new tech.
The clip started circulating days after Wright’s son Jordan announced he was making a bid for Dickens’ seat in Harlem.
“She’s done,” the AI-version of the Dem leader can be heard saying in the shocking audio. “I dug her grave and she rolled into it. F–k that b—h. Lazy. Incompetent.”
Wright told The Post that the recording was a “deep fake.” He said he’s spoken to Dickens and both are equally furious about the tape.
“This is horrible politics,” Wright said in a text. “Let me be clear. The audio is totally contrived to distort reality.”
Dickens, 74, announced Monday that she would be retiring.
Just this past weekend, a similarly faked message mimicking President Biden was blasted out to New Hampshire voters telling them not to vote in Tuesday’s presidential primary in the Granite State.
“It should be outlawed to deceive the public in this manner,” Wright said. “A new low in dirty tricks in local politics.”
New York lawmakers have started slowly making forays into regulating AI.
Last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation into law banning the distribution of pornography using AI-generated likenessese of people without their permission.
“This threat is not theoretical, it is not in the future, it is already happening,” said Upper East Side Assemblyman Alex Bores, who has introduced a bill requiring political campaigns to identify AI-generated content they use in ads or other materials.
“We’re going to need to take a lot of action here, but this is the first step,” Bores added.
Assembly Elections Committee Chair Latrice Walker said legislators were all “concerned about privacy violations and fraud involving AI and potential misuse.”
“It’s a new area and we are working now to determine what kind of future legislation might be required.”
Good government groups like Common Cause NY are supporting Bores’ bill.
“AI generated material poses a unique threat to our democracy because there’s no way for voters to tell whether it’s real or fake,” Common Cause New York Executive Director Susan Lerner told The Post.
“That’s why Common Cause NY advocates for legislation that would require campaigns to identify material that’s been generated with AI.”
Wright said he’s been in touch with lawyers about possibly issuing a cease and desist order.
At the federal level, White House rolled out a set of executive orders mostly aimed at AI firms last year, but Congress has yet to agree on legislation to regulate the ills of the rapidly developing new tech.