New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has sparked widespread debate online after posting videos of himself speaking Mandarin and Bengali, prompting claims that artificial intelligence was used to enhance his speech.
The mayor's communications team categorically denied the allegations, with press secretary Joe Calvello stating on X that to be clear, the footage was not artificial intelligence.
In the 41 second Mandarin clip, Mayor Mamdani sits at his office desk and addresses the camera to promote a city ticket giveaway. The initiative offers high school students 2,000 free tickets to Broadway theater performances across New York City.
The mayor's delivery drew mixed reactions from native Mandarin speakers online. While several users praised his effort, others described his speech as slow and somewhat stiff, leading some to suspect that artificial intelligence tools might have been employed to correct his vocal delivery.
Phil Wong, a Queens City Council member who speaks Mandarin natively, assessed that the mayor's pronunciation was accurate. Wong commented that the delivery sounded correct and was likely the result of multiple rehearsals.
Another viewer reported that the pronunciation was very precise despite a slightly rigid rhythm, calling the mayor's attempt impressive. However, skeptical social media users questioned the authenticity of the video, with one commenter writing that people believed it as if artificial intelligence was not involved, while another noted that using software to adjust language fluency was not difficult.
Mandarin and Bengali video campaign
According to a mayoral spokesperson, Mamdani previously studied Mandarin while attending the Bronx High School of Science, a specialized public high school in New York City, before graduating in 2010. Officials clarified that he had not studied or systematically used the language since his high school graduation.
Throughout his political career, Mamdani has established a reputation for reaching out to multilingual voters in their native tongues, having previously released messages in Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu. Municipal demographic data shows that approximately 330,000 New York City residents speak Chinese as their main language at home.
The mayor also released a second, nearly identical video spoken in Bengali, a language widely spoken in Bangladesh and used by approximately 265 million people globally. City records indicate that around 71,000 households in New York City speak Bengali. Most native Bengali speakers responding to the clip offered positive feedback regarding his accent.
A third video was produced in Spanish as part of the same public outreach campaign. Spanish is spoken at home by roughly 843,000 New York City residents.
Previous artificial intelligence allegations
According to the New York Post, previous media campaigns involving the mayor have also drawn scrutiny over potential digital manipulation. During his election campaign, critics accused Mamdani of relying on artificial intelligence tools for a promotional video spoken in Spanish.
At the time, Republican State Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz called for an independent investigation into two campaign videos, claiming there was sufficient evidence of digital alteration in the recordings.
Mamdani's campaign team responded by releasing behind the scenes footage featuring outtakes and mispronounced lines. The campaign stated that the blooper reel proved the videos were recorded naturally in real time without synthetic voice editing or digital alteration.
