LOS ANGELES — Former reality TV star Spencer Pratt is no superhero.
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But a number of recent viral AI-generated videos depicting him as Los Angeles’ sole savior have helped thrust his mayoral campaign against Mayor Karen Bass and City Councilwoman Nitya Raman into the spotlight in recent weeks.
Many of the videos, created by filmmaker Charlie Curran, cast Pratt in cinematic hero-style scenarios, where he appears as a Batman-like figure who fights buses in lightsaber duels or faces off against Joker-style buses, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President Kamala Harris orchestrating them behind the scenes. These posts have been viewed millions of times on social media.
Pratt denied any involvement and claimed the now-deleted Instagram clip was “fan-made.” He reposted some of them on X and is sharing his own “artificial” campaign video, which features videos of his wife, “The Hills” alum Heidi Pratt, and their son navigating life after their home was destroyed in the Palisades fire.
The content surrounding the campaign has drawn praise from a handful of celebrities, including reality star and entrepreneur Paris Hilton, actor Taylor Lautner, and celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton. Many people expressed their support on Pratt’s profile and commented that they support his bid.
Experts say the buzz generated by the AI-generated videos highlights how the technology is becoming a powerful election tool among politicians looking to denounce their opponents in more unconventional ways.
“This is a way to speak the language of memes, and the language of memes is the currency of the Internet,” says Samuel Woolley, an associate professor in the School of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh. “At this point, the technology is so pervasive that almost anyone can effectively create propaganda on behalf of a particular candidate, so its ease of use and cost of use are particularly attractive.”
Pratt, who was a villain on MTV from 2006 to 2010 when “The Hills” aired, has run a campaign touting himself as a champion of anti-establishment communities. He has criticized Bass’ response to the Palisades fire and Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis.
Mr. Bass is up for re-election and is leading the polls, while Mr. Pratt continues to gain support among Angelenos.
While some people online praised Pratt’s video as “amazing,” others expressed concerns about the ethical use of AI.
In an interview with CNN, Bass said viral videos created by AI are showing “very dangerous trends.”
Pratt’s social media campaign “is currently taking a violent turn,” she said, citing clips of tomatoes being thrown at her and scenes of him “drowning me and the governor in a reservoir.”
A bus spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. Pratt and Curran also did not respond.
Mr. Pratt did not address Mr. Bass’s recent comments, but he did comment on the general criticism of his candidacy on Instagram Wednesday.
“The funny thing is, they never attack my policy proposals,” he wrote, then added, “Come on my policy or sit on the back bench. I’m in the arena, son.”
Eric Wilson, an American conservative political technologist, said that even though generative AI tools allow politicians and their supporters to create creative campaign materials more quickly and with less resource constraints, the fundamentals of campaigning remain the same.
“We want to make sure that our candidate looks good and the other candidates don’t,” he said.
Pratt’s fan-made videos manage to do that, he said, by using heroes and villains to tell a consistent story.
Wilson also cited recent polling by the American Association of Political Consultants, saying Republicans are more likely than Democrats to use AI in their campaign strategies. And within the Republican Party, President Donald Trump has already set a precedent by relying heavily on AI-generated memes as part of his political branding.
But politicians should also be wary of working too closely with AI-generated media to undermine their message, Wilson said. Testing by AAPC showed that adding an AI disclaimer to a video reduces viewer trust, regardless of whether the video was actually generated by AI.
“Campaigns need to consider whether the additional benefits of storytelling are worth the trade-off in trust,” Wilson said. “So it’s still an open question.”
But Woolley, whose research focuses on emerging technology and manipulation, said it’s questionable at this point whether the risk of backlash is high enough for campaigns to dissuade supporters from using the technology.
Rather, Pratt said, they are “benefiting from the democratization of propaganda and lack of regulatory oversight by social media platforms.”
While it is entirely possible that this kind of content will lead to people leaving politics, it is also very likely that it will provoke a backlash and a demand for a return to clear policies.
-Samuel Woolley, Associate Professor, University of Pittsburgh, focuses on emerging technologies and operations
Pratt this week shared an AI-generated video of himself in the form of an attack ad that actually lists his selling points. (This post comes after a union supporting Bass funded what appeared to be an attack ad that made Platt highly attractive to Republican voters, which analysts suspect was a ploy to survive a runoff with Bass, thereby forcing Raman, his primary Democratic challenger, out of the race.)
“A vote for Spencer is a vote for change. Why vote for change when everything is going well?” Pratt’s video shows a man angrily saying this while holding the hand of what appears to be his crying daughter as houses burn in the background. “Stay the course with Karen Bass.”
Woolley said research suggests that in the U.S., there is more skepticism about the political use of generative AI on the left than on the right. But through recent interviews with political consultants and data scientists, his team learned that political movements on both sides of the aisle feel they will be left behind if they don’t start using generative AI.
“I think AI-driven meme wars are already becoming the landscape of online politics. But importantly, people are very exhausted by the amount of noise online and the stalling of AI. So we don’t know how long this situation will last,” he said. “It’s very possible that this kind of content will lead to people leaving politics, but it’s also very likely that it will provoke a backlash and a demand for a return to clear policy.”
Many creators in Los Angeles, a historically progressive city, have already expressed an aversion to using generative AI, which could be a risk for Platt, Woolley said. But the videos also appear to increase his popularity online, which Woolley said could encourage opponents to take him more seriously.
“Time will tell whether the anger, the atmosphere, the memes alone will be enough to secure Pratt the mayor’s office in Los Angeles,” Woolley said.
