Former New York City Council Candidate Jonathan Rinaldi Allegedly Used AI to Create False Endorsements and Fabricated News Reports

Summary

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backing to public figures and institutions that had not provided it and falsely claimed that opponent Lynn Schulman had withdrawn.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.

Developers

• Synthetic video generation technology developers
• OpenAI
• Google
• Face-swapping technology developers
• Deepfake technology developers
• Synthetic image generation technology developers

Deployers

• political candidates
• political campaigns
• Jonathan Rinaldi

Harmed parties

• 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

Tags

• response