‘There’s a lot of jobs I can’t do’

Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo dropped an AI-generated campaign ad depicting him painfully trying his hand at different jobs, including an MTA subway driver, a window washer and a stockbroker.

In the $45,000 ad buy first aired Wednesday, Cuomo’s team used artificial intelligence to portray the mayoral candidate at the helm of a city train, hanging off a skyscraper and on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

“I’m Andrew Cuomo, and I could pretend to do a lot of jobs,” the AI version of the former governor says in the 30-second spot.

“But I know what I know, and I know what I don’t know. And I do know how to make government work,” he says. “There are a lot of jobs I can’t do, but I’m ready to be your mayor on day one.” 

The Cuomo team touted the bizarre promo in a press release, calling it “one of the first positive and most visible uses of AI in paid political advertising.”

But the spot drew some cringe reactions on social media, with some users blasting it as “slop” and calling Cuomo out for not filming the video for real.

“This is a bad ad for Cuomo and somehow an even worse ad for the use of AI?” quipped political operative Amanda Litman, of the progressive group “Run for Something,” in a post on X.

“I think this Cuomo ad is a perfect example for why I hate A.I so much. Imagine if Cuomo had filmed himself in front of an actual film set or even a green screen doing this jobs. It would’ve been funny! Endearing, even! But here, it’s just slop, pathetic, and sad,” added YouTuber Nick Poulimenakos.

Cuomo’s rivals in the November mayoral election also piled on — with front-runner Zohran Mamdani drawing parallels between the advertisement and Cuomo’s housing plan, which was scrutinized for being partially written by ChatGPT.

“In a city of world-class artists and production crews hunting for the next gig, Andrew Cuomo made a TV ad the same way he wrote his housing policy: with AI,” the socialist candidate wrote on X.

“Then again, maybe a fake Cuomo is better than the real one?,” he jokingly added.

GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa also ripped the ad during an unrelated press conference outside of the former governor’s residence in Manhattan on Thursday.

“I’m looking at the squeegee and it’s not even a squeegee!” Sliwa exclaimed, referring to a scene where AI Cuomo is washing windows on the scaffolding of a high-rise building.

“I think so many people looked at his AI and laughed,” Sliwa said. “That’s probably why he got a lot of clicks, because people are busy laughing at how ridiculous it looks.

“He’s never going to be hip and happening.” 

Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi emphasized that the video was meant to be taken as a “humorous attempt” to break through to his audience.

But he wasn’t laughing at the jibes from Cuomo’s opponents.

“The supreme irony is that Curtis Sliwa is an Abject clown,” Azzopardi said, “and there’s nothing funny about Zohran Mamdani’s attempts to legalize prostitution. He’s a clown too.”