Josh Gottheimer uses AI in anti-Trump ad for the New Jersey governor's race
Source: NBC News
April 28, 2025, 6:00 AM EDT
Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer argues in his first TV ad of the New Jersey governor's race that he is ready to fight President Donald Trump and he's using artificial intelligence to make his case.
Gottheimer, who is in his fifth term, portrays himself as a boxer in the ad, shared first with NBC News, which uses AI to show him sparring with Trump in a boxing ring. The spot appears to be one of the first TV ads in a major race to lean significantly on AI.
"He's a born fighter. Josh Gottheimer's been fighting for people all his life," a narrator says as images of a young Gottheimer wearing boxing gloves play on screen and as a disclaimer reads, "AI Generated Imagery."
The ad goes on to tout Gottheimer's work for Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama on protecting Medicare and Social Security, as well as his efforts to pass infrastructure and gun safety legislation in Congress. Over images of Gottheimer and Trump sparring in a boxing ring, their gloves colliding, the narrator says Gottheimer is "fighting for Jersey to stop Donald Trumps tariffs and chaos. Now hes ready for the big one."
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/josh-gottheimer-uses-ai-anti-trump-ad-new-jersey-governors-race-rcna203190

IronLionZion
(48,586 posts)VA also has statewide elections this year, and there are special elections for house races in several states.
highplainsdem
(55,581 posts)intellectual property was stolen to train the AI. Most artists I've seen speaking out against AI are liberals. They'll probably vote for him anyway in the general election, but I'd bet this will cost him votes in the primary. There was really no excuse for him using AI.
LudwigPastorius
(12,288 posts)I'm pulling for Ras Baraka in the primary anyway.
Oneironaut
(5,964 posts)xocetaceans
(4,150 posts)...writers, et al. under the bus.
[sarcasm on] Truly, that move shows strong support for the working person and for the IP rights of all of the people whose creative work on which the AI initially had to have been trained. [sarcasm off]
Looking at his record, Gottheimer does not seem to be quite cut out for being a governor: perhaps, a better candidate could take up the challenge for the Democrats in New Jersey.
Here is some of Gottheimer's past record.
Terrence T. McDonald | NorthJersey.com
...
Border funding vote
Gottheimer and Kreibich, both 45, claim numerous differences. She supports Medicare For All and the Green New Deal, while he opposes them. She says he sides with Trump too often, while he says he votes in the best interests of his constituents, regardless of party. She says she would host traditional town hall meetings with constituents, while he favors meeting with small groups of voters at diners, saying larger gatherings encourage boorish behavior and accomplish nothing.
But there is one vote Gottheimer took last year on HR-3401, a border security funding bill that is key to understanding the dynamics at play in this race. Gottheimers decision to back the bill encapsulates what his supporters like about him: his ability, as he says often, to get things done. And it illustrates why his liberal critics say he should be tossed out of office: instead of fighting for Democratic priorities, they say, he caves to burnish his reputation as a compromiser.
...
House Democrats were handed a bill authorizing emergency border spending that totaled $4.6 billion. The measure had already passed the Senate 84-8 and that chambers leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told House leaders he would not consider amending it. Some liberal House members wanted to add provisions requiring more stringent care requirements for detained migrant families, but Gottheimer and his bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus pushed to get the Senate bill passed. It did, 305-102.
...
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2020/06/25/josh-gottheimer-vote-led-his-primary-challenge-arati-kreibich-2020-primary/3246192001/
Gottheimer also seems to have opposed voting on President Biden's infrastructure bill as a whole. So, the economic concerns that revived and granted the USA another "Trump Presidential MAGA Experience" seem to have been partly caused by Gottheimer's all too conservative positions. If President Biden's whole Build Back Better infrastructure package had been passed, the Democrats would not have been so weak going into the 2024 election, and this current Trump/Musk Experience could have been avoided. So, Gottheimer seems to have been part of the problem: it was not only Manchin and Sinema.
It's ironic that his AI slop video claims infrastructure as one of his successes.
9 Moderate Democrats Threaten To Derail Pelosi's Infrastructure And Budget Plan
August 13, 202112:10 PM ET
By Barbara Sprunt
Nine moderate House Democrats warned Speaker Nancy Pelosi they won't vote for a budget resolution critical to passing Democrats' $3.5 trillion social policy package unless the House first passes a Senate-approved infrastructure bill, a move that threatens to derail the party's economic agenda.
"Some have suggested that we hold off on considering the Senate infrastructure bill for months until the reconciliation process is completed. We disagree," the lawmakers wrote Thursday in a letter to Pelosi. "With the livelihoods of hardworking American families at stake, we simply can't afford months of unnecessary delays and risk squandering this once-in-a-century, bipartisan infrastructure package. It's time to get shovels in the ground and people to work."
The letter is signed by Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia, Filemon Vela of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California and Kurt Schrader of Oregon.
...
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/13/1027371749/moderate-house-democrats-infrastructure-budget-vote-pelosi