Nelson City Councilman Campbell Loro denounced his “AI-generated” video posted on social media.
The video, featuring first-term councillors filming military-style firearms, was uploaded to the Nelson Community Facebook page on Friday, but was later deleted.
Posted by an account called Nelson NZ Video Game Buyer and captioned. [sic] Voting for the Nelson Community! What a shameful, encouraging violence! ”
Rolo said the video was generated by artificial intelligence and “recovered quite a bit” when he saw the video online.
“The video was not real. It was generated by someone using my Facebook photos without my knowledge.”
A watermark formula called “pixverse.ai” appears in the corner of the video, a generative AI website, with the background and clothing worn by Rolo in the video matching his Facebook profile image.
“I literally didn't know where it came from. I quickly went back and scrolled over it. [I] We knew very quickly that it was generated,” he said.
“I'm just really thinking someone is a bit of a bit of a look. But yeah, in hindsight, it's probably a little too far.”
He said he was worried after seeing some commenters wondered if the video was authentic, and urged residents to “really care” about online content, especially as local elections approached.
“If you see something coming out of a political person or someone running for council, I'd certainly be looking for a license statement or a real one.”
Nelson Mayor Nick Smith reiterated Loro's concerns.
He said that it's good that most people can tell that “someone's mischievous” was made because the video is “so fake.”
“But it's a real warning, especially when going to local elections, to note that people are made false claims to people and affect the way they vote.”
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Smith added that Tafnanui Liaison Councillor Rolo is “very effective” in his role.
“He does a great job for Tafnanui and it's very unfair to link him to gun violence.”
After the video was removed, Lolo discovered that the support from residents and his fellow elected members has become “very humble.”
“The amount of calls and messages I just reached out to, I'm sure I'm fine. It's pretty cool,” he said.
“At the end, we are people who try to do everything we can for our community.”
Local Democracy Report is a local body journalism jointly funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
