A provocative artificial intelligence video featuring Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt as a caped crusader saving the city from socialist militia and indifferent elites racked up millions of views Tuesday, just 24 hours before he faced rivals in a televised debate.
The clip, created by filmmaker Charlie Curran, depicts a dystopian Los Angeles where flames consume the Hollywood sign and state and federal leaders including Governor Gavin Newsom, Mayor Karen Bass, and former Vice President Kamala Harris appear as detached aristocrats. Pratt emerges as the savior in a Batman-style intervention.
The video accumulated 3.6 million views by Wednesday. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush publicly praised it as "maybe the best political ad of the year," amplifying its reach across social media.
Pratt, a former reality television personality, has been hammering Bass and City Council member Nithya Raman for weeks on wildfires, homelessness, and public safety. In one April post, he attacked Bass over crime enforcement, writing: "it's easy for Karen Basura and Nithya Raman to claim 'crime is down' when they simply stop enforcing it. 60K open air drug zombies commit multiple felonies every single day."
Neither Bass nor Raman responded to requests for comment about the video ahead of their debate with Pratt.
The relationship between Curran and Pratt's campaign remains unclear. The filmmaker did not respond to inquiries about whether he was directly hired or working independently.
The AI question
Steve Caplan, a political advertising expert at the University of Southern California, said AI-generated campaign ads are likely to proliferate in future races. "They're cheap, fast and consultants hate spending money on production. You can crank out rapid response in hours," he explained.
But Caplan expressed skepticism about whether shock value translates to actual votes in Los Angeles. The city's entertainment industry, already reeling from production losses, may resist celebrating AI technology in politics. More fundamentally, Los Angeles is a heavily Democratic city where that ideological message struggles to gain traction.
"In an election where Democrats will turn out, it's a pretty narrow base to work from," Caplan said. "The notion that there are enough voters who would align with this message to win in an election like LA, I'm highly skeptical of that."
Author James Rodriguez: "Viral doesn't equal viable, and Pratt's Batman fantasy might be better suited for TikTok than a mayoral race in a blue-state stronghold."
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