AI incident ·
Former New York City Council Candidate Jonathan Rinaldi Allegedly Used AI to Create False Endorsements and Fabricated News Reports
On this page 6 sections
In brief
An AI system built by Synthetic Video Generation Technology Developers, Openai and 4 others and deployed by Political Candidates, Political Campaigns and 1 other allegedly harmed Voters In New York City Council District 29, Voters In New York and 27 others.
- Risk domain
- Not classified
- Occurred
- Coverage
- 1 report
What happened
Queens prosecutors alleged that former City Council candidate Jonathan Rinaldi used AI during his 2025 campaign to manufacture the appearance of political support through posts made to resemble authentic endorsements and news coverage. The material reportedly attributed backing to public figures and institutions that had not provided it and falsely claimed that opponent Lynn Schulman had withdrawn. Rinaldi was charged with forgery and possession of forged instruments.
Laws on record for this risk area
No instrument on record yet covers this risk area where it happened. See the open queue.
Matched from the record's risk category and country to the instruments in effect recorded here: a law listed covers the area, which is not a finding that it applies to this incident. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).
News reports (1)
Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged deployer
- Political Candidates, Political Campaigns, Jonathan Rinaldi
- Alleged harmed party
- Voters In New York City Council District 29, Voters In New York, Voters, The Amsterdam News, Social Media Users, Robert Holden, Queens Jewish Alliance, Public Institutions, Political Candidates, Police Departments, People Falsely Attributed As Authors, P.S. 101 School In Queens, Organizations Falsely Represented As Political Endorsers, Nonprofit Organizations, News Organizations, New York Post, New York Daily News, New York City Police Department 112Th Precinct, New York City Police Department, Lynn Schulman, Instagram Users, Facebook Users, Epistemic Integrity, Elected Officials, Educational Communities, Democratic Integrity, Daniel Kurzyna, Cnn, Asian Wave Alliance
Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)
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- Risk subdomain
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Source record: incident #1557 on the AI Incident Database · all 1 report