Reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who is now running for mayor of Los Angeles, is flashing the Hollywood sign. Suitable as Batman, Enters City Hall and leads the people to overthrow a group of corrupt, out-of-touch progressives intent on destroying the city.
then he is Luke Skywalker. Dressed in Jedi attire, he rides around the city on an Imperial speeder bike while California Governor Gavin Newsom (Emperor Palpatine) berates current Mayor Karen Bass (Darth Vader) for not destroying the city in her first term.
“Make sure you get the job done in a second,” Newsom told Bass with a nod and a smile.
Bass replies, “The only thing that can stop us is someone telling the truth.” “As long as they have no hope, the city is ours.”
Pratt’s fan-generated AI election campaign video has been praised and mocked, but heavily shared. And some see them as a harbinger of how artificial intelligence could reshape political messaging across the country.
Their proponents are far from the first to create AI-generated ads. But political experts say it’s remarkable the extent to which he has used new technology to create a stream of bizarre, ultra-cinematic memes that are generating buzz about his campaign and his message.
However, some warn that as the technology becomes more sophisticated, it will become harder for many people to distinguish between AI and real video.
“When you’re creating content that’s not based in reality, and then platforms are amplifying it to get more attention, you’re putting the burden on the public to figure out what’s real and what’s factual, and what’s fake and misleading,” said Mark Jablonowski, chief executive of DSpolitical, a progressive advertising firm.
Pratt’s campaign did not produce viral AI videos depicting him as a superhero against California Democratic villains. But he has shared the ads, created by AI filmmaker Charlie Curran, founder of LA’s Menace Studio.
Supercharged and inspired by Hollywood, videos represent a new era of fan-generated AI in political campaign advertising. Deploying generative AI tools to clone human voices and images, they promote a hyperbolic and hyper-conspiratorial political narrative that portrays L.A. under Democratic rule as a hellscape in which Newsom and Bass knowingly conspire to harm people.
Bass condemned the ads, calling them “very scary” and “absolutely 150% fantasy.”
“Their social media is now taking a violent turn,” Bais said. cnn, Citing the Batman ad which shows Angelenos throwing tomatoes at him.
Some political experts dismiss such fears of AI campaign ads as exaggerated. He believes that most AI videos shared by political campaigns and their fans are more humorous than intentionally misleading.
“Spencer Pratt is using AI the way it should be used, which is to sharpen reality,” said Matt Clink, an LA-based Republican political consultant. “Their whole complaint is that Los Angeles is broken, insiders have failed, and the political class wants to clarify what voters are seeing with their own eyes.”
“Obviously, you don’t run an AI ad where you have someone saying something they didn’t say, and you must disclose that they were generated by AI,” Klink said. But when it comes to ads that depict Pratt as Batman or Luke Skywalker, he said, “If you don’t know they’re created by AI, you’re pretty ignorant to begin with.”
For as long as political candidates and their supporters have experimented with new technology – from pamphlets of the 1600s to memes of the 21st century – they have faced complaints that they mislead the public.
As big language models usher in a new era of AI, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) caution “The American public is going to be bombarded with deception, disinformation, and deepfakes in 2024.”
The term “deepfake” was first coined in 2017 by a Reddit user who used open-source face-swapping technology to superimpose celebrity faces onto the bodies of porn performers. Within a few months, it entered the mainstream lexicon as a way to describe any AI-generated synthetic media that virtually clones a person’s image or voice.
Blumenthal cited a “heartbreaking example”. In January 2024, Republicans made robocalls to New Hampshire residents using an AI “deepfake” voice imitating President Biden to discourage Democrats from voting in the presidential primaries.
New Hampshire officials said the message violated the state’s voter suppression laws. A month later, the Federal Communications Commission outlawed robocalls that use AI-generated voices. The company that sent the message agreed to pay. Fine of 1 million dollars.
But others continued to push the boundaries of AI – mostly in the form of direct parody or satire, an area that offers greater protection than the First Amendment.
In July 2024, an AI content creator created a mock campaign advertising It appeared to be accompanied by a computer-generated voiceover of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris describing herself as the ultimate “diversity mercenary” and “puppet of the deep state.” The post was titled ‘Kamala Harris Campaign Ad Parody’.
Newsom Slammed “It should be illegal to manipulate voices in ‘advertising’ like this,” the post said on X. Two months later, he signed a series of bills banning AI in politics.
But a federal judge blocked one of the new Law It regulated election-related content that is “materially misleading”, saying it potentially violates the First Amendment.
No comprehensive federal regulations govern the use of AI content in political ads or messages. according to National Conference of State Legislatures, 29 states have passed laws restricting the use of deepfakes in political campaigns: some states, such as Texas and Minnesota, ban the use of deepfakes days before an election; Another 27 states require media disclosure if the content includes deepfakes.
Some political advertising experts call for more federal regulation. They argue that the patchwork of state-by-state regulations makes compliance too difficult for social media platforms.
“At the end of the day, we really need to see platforms being more responsible with the content they’re sharing,” Jablonowski said. “We need clear guidelines and a level playing field across the country, so we’re not in a situation where what’s OK in one state isn’t OK in another.”
Pratt’s embrace of AI is part of a larger political trend in 2026.
In January, Texas Atty. General Ken Paxton issued a Advertisement His two opponents for the Senate seat – Republican Senator John Cornyn and Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett – are depicted walking and swinging. A few months later, the National Republican Senatorial Committee shared a Video It used a doctored image of James Tallarico, the Democratic candidate for the Texas Senate seat, who was tweeting his own.
But Pratt has been particularly successful in using fan-based AI to help garner attention, attracting a number of content creators to produce AI videos for his campaign.
one posted Video A parody of the 2004 film Downfall, in which Bass is depicted as Hitler. another made an animated Video, Tailored for Latino audiences, Pratt is shown wheeling a garbage can filled with trash and Angelenos lining the streets to cheer him on as the outgoing mayor. The slogan “Spencer, saca la bussura” (Spencer, take out the trash) flashes across the screen.
a fresh survey From the American Association. A survey of political consultants shows that adoption of AI is growing rapidly among political consultants – and Republicans are more likely to use it than Democrats.
But political observers in L.A. say the leading Democrat in the mayoral race is unlikely to follow Pratt in using AI. He believes Bass is a more cautious political figure than Pratt, a fiery online influencer who enjoys playing the villain on MTV’s “The Hills.”
While Pratt’s user-generated AI ads have inspired giddy delight out of state Republican-conservative radio host Buck Sexton praised Batman videos to usher in “a new era of online persuasion” – it’s still unclear whether they’ll convince Angelenos to vote for him.
Certainly, the commercials have helped Pratt gain recognition. They have also voiced deep frustrations with L.A.’s Democratic establishment and made room for a more pressing debate over the city’s future direction.
But there is little evidence that AI ads are attracting new voters on their own.
So far, no AI ad shared by Pratt has received as many views as non-AI on his X account Advertisement His campaign garnered over 14 million views.
In it, Pratt stands outside Bass’s city-owned Hancock Park mansion and Nithya Raman’s home in leafy Silver Lake, then leads an Airstream over the charred ruins of her home, which burned during the Palisades fire.
“They don’t have to live in the mess they’ve created,” Pratt says while walking down an L.A. street filled with homeless tents.
Meghan Daam, former columnist for the Los Angeles Times Pratt supported And calling herself a “liberal elitist whisperer for Pratt”, she believes Pratt’s Airstream ad was more effective than AI superhero ads. He expressed concern that sharing AI videos could actively undermine his campaign.
He said, “The undecided voters that Pratt needs to capture will make an adverse impression on him, most of whom will think they are coming directly from the campaign.” X. “Be careful, guys.”
He told The Times that the use of AI could lead to voter discouragement in the city, where many film crews have lost their jobs due to AI. She was also concerned about the legality of advertisements – such as a Video Claims to be a Bass campaign ad – which puts words in the mouths of computer-generated politicians.
But Daum said others told him this was the beauty of the new world and a way to excite people who haven’t voted for anything in the past.
“That may be true,” she said.
So far, there is little evidence that AI in US political campaigns has influenced elections.
“There is much more fear about the effects of AI in politics than there is evidence of the effects of AI in politics,” said Dartmouth College political scientist Brendan Nahan, a recent co-author. report On AI and persuasion.
During the 2024 election, AI was often used to create “blatantly false” images of attention-grabbing, funny or radical content, Nahan said. “It seems like this is a mechanism to reach out to your base rather than to persuade voters who haven’t made up their minds or may just stay home,” he said.
Finally, Pratt’s personal story of loss — and more specific complaints about L.A. Systemic failures in preparedness and emergency response During the 2025 firearms and Spending on failed programs to provide homes to the homeless – may have more resonance than simplistic AI stories about evil Democrats bent on destroying their city.
Some L.A. political observers admit they were surprised by Pratt’s performance Televised debate on 6th May With Bas and Raman.
“Spencer Pratt was a laughingstock when he first announced he was going to run, and he has dramatically exceeded expectations,” said GOP strategist Klink. “I think he’s surprised people with his ability to offer solutions. … That’s what will get people to vote, not a Batman or Star Wars ad.”
As millions of people click on Pratt videos — in some cases more than 3.8 million people living in L.A. — Clicks said there’s a question Pratt needs to ask: “Do views of his ads translate into votes?”
