Spencer Pratt's AI Batman video goes viral

And we continue at one oh five in the afternoon. On the John Phillips Show, Mister Randy Wangs in Culver City.

John d San Francisco City attorney is suing a corner store in the Tenderloin because they say they've been selling meth in there.

We don't show no drugs. We don't we don't sell met they sell myth outside.

Eight hundred two two two five two two two is a telephone number? What eight hundred two two two five two two two. Well, As former California Attorney General Javier Bessera sees a bump in the polls. The knives are being sharpened and out for him.

Wait, are you sure that's how you pronounce his name?

Grampy Joe for.

Secretary of Health and Educations over I nominated Javier Bakaria.

I stand corrected.

Scrub it.

A whole bunch of peop ball are starting to pick through Javier Besera's record as Attorney General and as Secretary of HJHS, and some of his colleagues aren't fans.

Well. Apparently, when he was Secretary of Health and Human Services, he used to show up to meetings totally unprepared. Biden would ask him questions and he wouldn't know the answer to anything.

Based on the interviews that we've seen Bessarah in and the debates we've seen Bessarah in that tracks. For more on this, we go to CBSLA.

The governor's race and being a front runner means being a target.

Democrat.

Havierbasserra is fending off attext and it's.

Not just from his rivals, but also from his former coworkers in the White House. CBSLA political reporter Tom Waite is here to explain.

And it just heats up every day. Right, people with their ballots are voting, So all these kind of daily sort of news cycles, they matter because people are making choices. So Passara's pull numbers are on the rise.

They have been for the past few weeks.

As you becomes more of a threat, as Rude band Wan were saying, his opponents are taking more shots. What he may not have expected was that his former White House colleagues would be piling on.

In fact, I'm looking up at the TV today and every commercial is either a Javi or Basera commercial or a Tom Steier commercial saying that Javi or Basera lost eighty thousand migrants.

They must really hate him too, because typically when something like this happens, they just plant negative stories about you and maybe talk to the reporter off the record. They're going on the record saying he was awful.

As Democrat Javier Besserra's poll numbers rise in the gubernatorial race, so do the attacks on his candidacy, including fellow Democrats at the debates.

Antonio is absolutely right about the secretary's failure on the immigration issue.

There is a direct one, and other Dems.

Mayhe I think it's over, buddy.

He keeps moving up in the polls, but man, it's inch by inch.

And other Dems are piling on too. Thursday, Politico reported that a half dozen former Biden administration officials who worked with Bisera are anonymously mocking his front runner status.

Could you imagine what those text groups must be like. I wonder what emojis they're using. I know what emojis they use for swallwell.

One telling Politico quote it gets the biggest political laugh every time we send around a poll. According to Politico, the whispers claim as Health and Human Services Secretary Biserah bungled the COVID response, a migrant health, crisis at the border, and other issues.

Feel like it's a little too soon for the Biden people to be lecturing on. You know what California voter should be doing. These are officials, some of whom you know, we're kind of hiding from the country, Biden's deterioration.

The business.

Yeah right. I love how they're still pretending is if no one knew he was senile.

The Bisara campaign is blasting those claims and provided statements of support from former Biden administration officials like former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Even a veteran California Republican strategist is minimizing the claims.

Unless the former president were to come on say something, I don't think any of this breaks.

The former president doesn't know who he is, and by the way, didn't know who he was on day one and throughout the Biden term would constantly confuse the names Bessara and majorcis.

Unless the former president were to come on say something, I don't think any of this breaks through. The only way to change the trajectory of the race to have something swallwell size, can we.

Not make that a phrase?

Well, we haven't seen the tapes yet, so we can't really comment on that.

The candidates have gathered for three debates over the course of the last two weeks, including the showdown CBS California and Pomona College hosted last week. New polling is out every day, many of them showing support coalescing behind the Sarah for the Democrats and Steve Hilton on the Republican side.

Steve Hilton is just a more television friendly.

Pius A way, how is it that we haven't seen the Swalwell sex tapes out yet? I have a plane trip tomorrow and I need something to watch. Well, if they're not out by tomorrow and you're not able to watch the Swallwell sex tapes that have been promised that you thought we're going to be delivered, I guess you're just gonna have to log into your HBO Max account and check out a little heated rivalry.

Why do you have to watch porn in the living room?

You think they'll cut me off with the booze on the plane if I do that.

Maybe Steve Hilton is just a more television friendly personality. The race is.

Still Yeah, Bianco has resting bitch face. I said it.

Steve Hilton is just a more television friendly personality. The race is still fluid. Be Sarah's ahead right now, but not by a huge margin. There's still an opportunity for other candidates to pull up. Keep an eye on mat Man.

A staggering statistic in the race Tom Steyer's campaign spending. He's poured more than one hundred and fifty million dollars of his own fortune into the campaign. He led Democrats.

Do you know how many medical taxi cab rides?

That is?

I am still perplexed that there's an audience for that. The crowd that thinks it should be illegal to be a billion there is getting behind Tom Steyer.

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Led Democrats in some polls for a while, but has now slipped from the top. So polls change a lot day to day.

We'll see where this goes.

We're seeing it happen right now.

Thank you, Tom Well for much more on the June primary and the people wanting your vote. Go to CPSLA dot com slash Voter's guide to watch our candidate interviews and compare candidates side by side.

So there you go. Everyone's going after Besera. Because Besara keeps going up in the polls, I think we're at a point where there is a ceiling for how many people will vote for Tom Steyer. I don't think I've seen him go above fifteen percent in any poll, and now there are polls showing Besera in the twenties.

Well, and I think the same thing is true for Katie Porter, because have you noticed that even the people who like her reference the fact that she's a monster, including the cod Save Up, Go Ahead Katie Dinner, including the pod Save America guy and the ladies on the View.

Yeah, they all prefer this Katie out of my shot. That's what the kind of energy they thought was going to go into these debates.

All right.

So that's the latest on the goobernatorial campaign. But we also have an LA mayor's race going on, and fresh off the heels of his successful debate performance against incumbent Karen Bass and Socialist councilwoman Nitia Rahman, Spencer Pratt has campaign ads that are now going viral.

And it's because they are completely generated by AI and one of them that is going everywhere. I can't tell you the amount of people that have emailed it to us. It's Spencer Pratt is Batman and Karen Bass is the joker, and Gavin Newsom is French Royalty eating cake. For more on the implications of the Spencer Pratt AI ads here is CBS Sacramento.

The Badman inspired AI political ad is going viral and it's stirring up plenty of talk.

At one point, all the people in the AI ads start throwing tomatoes at Karen Bass and she doesn't like it.

I love it and you can see why.

Thanks for joining us here at six.

I'm Tony Lopez and I'm Marley Ginter.

Well.

That video depicts California's politicians as comic style super villains. Well, former reality star turned LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt steps in to save the city video.

He's got another one out where Karen Bass is a dictator. It's interesting, Well, didn't Fidel Castro bring her into politics? That is true.

Video is also raising questions about the ethics of using AI for political ads.

GBS thirteen Steve Large is live at the Capitol with that video message and how AI is really transforming campaigns right now?

Steve, Yeah, we all know now that the future of AI is really here. This video shows a candidate as Batman, an incumbent as the joker, and raises the question when is the joke on the voter?

Well, I don't think anyone's going to watch that video and think it's real.

No. No, And it also just goes to show you that being a political strategist or a political consultant is another job that AI is going to eliminate, because I have seen pictures of the shoots where they develop these campaign ads and there's like fifteen or twenty people there. Well, now that a candidate can do it on a shoe string budget with AI, you don't need to raise that kind of money anymore to get a campaign ad out there. It could be just one person with a laptop.

LA Mayor Karen Bass portrayed as a scary villain to a good viewer, Governor Gavin Newsom as French Royalty eating Kate.

The technology is getting scary. It wasn't this good a year ago.

And former reality TV star turned LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt as Batman saving his city and the state from a comic book Tyranny, all using artificial intelligence.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing.

Well, I think it depends on your perspective.

From Indy Romero is the founder of the nonpartisan Center for Inclusive Democracy and says, the viral video is easy for most voters to tell. It's not real.

As far as we know, Spencer Price is not Batman.

Could be. We don't know what he does late at night.

I love the fact that you needed a bunch of college degrees in a position on a board to make that stay.

As far as we know, Spencer Pratt is not Batman. Adam West is Batman was Batman.

The video was created by filmmaker Charles Kerran, not a political campaign committee, and Kerran has not said who paid for the work. New California state law and acted in twenty twenty five, would require disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence in campaign advertisements.

Well, and that specifically for things like deep fakes, where they're really trying to manipulate someone into thinking someone said something that they didn't say. This is not that. This is satire in one of its best forms.

Under certain circumstances to root out deep fake deception.

The Spencer Pratt spot is exactly what AI should be, which is using innovation and technology to make an interesting ad that is not trying to fool voters.

Republican strategist tad Berg runs political cares and is concerned AI in the hands of bad acting political operatives can be used to deceive voters.

Or are you worried about that your consulting firms about to go out of business?

Yeah, because think about this. If one guy on a laptop can create an AD that goes viral, it's all over x it's all over Facebook, it's all over Instagram. People are texting each other, texting it to each other, they're posting it on their social media pages. You don't need Tom Steyer's money to get a message out anymore. All you need is a message and something clever that

So where they've literally changed the world of elected officials who are speaking to.

Wether Way, we're calling this an AD, but I don't think they're trying to put this in a thirty second form to air on KTLA.

No, No, I haven't seen anyone by time. They haven't bought time on this program. They haven't bought time on the channels I have going on in the background. I think this was just someone fooling around on their laptop and they put it out on social media because they thought it was funny, and then people just shared it on their own.

This was very organic of elected officials who were speaking to change the meaning.

The use of AI in this La mayor's race.

Did you know that wasn't real?

And do you believe that it wasn't real?

Raising the campaign question? Without the comic book fantasy of the Batman and Joker, would voters be full?

You know, there probably is a voter out there that thinks that ads real.

I'm telling you there are people out there who have no clue that Eric's wal Wells an accused rapist and he is going to get thousands of votes.

Now, it's the Fair Political Practices Commission that enforces AI rules. They have asked the legislature for more money so that they can help root out AI, and they say they've gotten some allegations of misuse of AI, but so far no public violations have been reported.

Do you remember when the Katie Porter Julie Watts video first came out, people started messing with that with AI where they were able to manipulate that footage and make it look like she was playing patty Cake with Julie Watts and of course dumping potatoes on Julie Watts. Oh, there were some videos that had Katie Porter hitting her no.

To the point to where Julie Watts actually had to put together a rap about all of the deep fake AI videos.

That was six months ago. The technology has advanced way faster than anyone thought it could, and I'm here for it, well until it takes our jobs.

Eight hundred two two two five two two two East Telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com. That's Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com. And if you're interested in finding out how I'm voting in the primary election, my ballot should be up on the KABC and KSFO website before the end of today's show, and you'll be able to figure out just exactly how

All you gotta do is search for the John Phillips Show. Wherever you get your podcast, whether it's the Apple podcast app, iHeart Spotify, search for the John Phillip Show, hit subscribe. You could download all the episodes. You get to a Google on the YouTube, Get the free KABC app, get the free KSFO app, Get that KMJ now app. We're on that station Saturdays at noon, that's tomorrow. So many different ways to listen live to us whenever we are

It's not so uh I eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. Well, Randy, we have an update on a story that we brought to you some weeks ago involving home most people who are allegedly being paid to sign voter petition not as themselves but as other people.

This was, of course, originally uncovered by our friend JJ Smith up in the Tenderloin and it went everywhere. So Dan Noys teamed up with JJ Smith on an unrelated story. Noticed a car with a whole bunch of ballot petitions just sitting on the windshield, and that's where dan Ney's got into a little bit of a verbal argument with the guy who was obviously paying the homeless to sign those petitions. Well, they have finally identified that guy and he's a grifter from Detroit.

You don't say for more.

Here is ABC seven in the Bay and the always awesome Dan Neis.

We have finally been able to identify this man who took a swipe at the ABC seven Newsy team.

As you can see, we.

Were questioning him about allegations that he paid homeless to sign other people's names on petitions against the Bill Millionaire's tex.

Im reporter Dan Noise is here with the latest on that viral video that you were one of.

The stars of Dan Wow and Daniel for my report last month.

I had a hard time identifying that man, but after the story aired, I started getting messages from across the country. I was investigating a different story in San Francisco's Tenderloin when I saw this woman with petitions spread across the hood of a car. I approached and started taking pictures of the documents when a man emerged from the passenger seat.

Violate my privacy rights.

Stay away from my car.

If apparently it's illegal to take pictures in public.

Violate my privacy rights. Stay away from my car. If you can see this viole my privacy rights. If you can see this on the street, if you can see one on the street, I can see those petitions right there on the street.

They right there.

They mind, they're mine, they're yours.

Yeah, okay, are you paying people?

Are you paying people? Neighborhood advocate JJ Smith had already captured video of the man and his partner paying a homeless couple five dollars each to sign petitions in other people's names.

JJ's got those meta ray bands and they're full and everybody, Oh, yes they are.

Smith asked the man.

You fight hollis for doing it? Which one can you write?

Neely?

Can I write neatly?

Yeah?

You see, JJ got invited to the White House.

Oh did he?

Yeah?

I don't know when that's happening, but oh boy.

Maybe he's staying in the Lincoln bedroom.

After our confrontation, I tried to identify the man, checked the license plate, ran facial recognition, but could not confirm his name. Then our story went viral and I got a message from a signature gatherer living in the Midwest.

You watched the story and you recognized him.

Yes, I recognized him, and I recognized him immediately.

Okay, that's not the guy's voice.

No, But instead, every single person who's interviewed by the local news acts as if they're in the witness protection program.

But instead of doing the old school disguising somebody's voice, they literally did the interview, took the transcript of what the witness said, and used an AI voice.

They should have used the Queen of England.

You watched the story and you recognized him?

Yes, I recognized him, and I recognized him immediately.

He doesn't want to show his face or use his name. He also asked that I replace his voice with a computer generated one.

He says, guy's gone for extra levels of protection because he doesn't want anyone thinking he's a rat.

I wonder if he's in a hotel under an assumed name.

He says the signature gathering community is small and that he has seen Phil Brunson on other jobs.

When you saw our story, what was your reaction.

I was upset.

See the AI can't really do the inflection properly.

I was upset.

This guy may have a comical accent.

It's possible.

I was upset. There's a lot of petitioners that are upset because our job is to go out there legally and do it the right way. You never beat the system.

Something that maybe people aren't aware of is how many signature gatherers are, like from out of state and they just travel around the country and this is their job.

Oh yeah, because different states have elections at different times. So if you're in that business, you have to go where the jobs are, you have to go where the money is.

You never beat the system. It never happens. You just get caught, you might as well just do it the right way.

The signature gather appointed me to Philip DeShawn. Brunson's social media and a background check shows that he is fifty years old, living in Detroit, with a criminal history. He spent time in prison.

You don't say, and I thought he was a fine, upstanding person this whole time.

Brunson is again getting attention from law enforcement. Secretary of State Shirley Weber is California's chief elections officer.

Her spokesperson says.

Of course she's not going to talk.

No, she never does, even when she screws everything up, which is all the time.

They have reviewed our video and that an investigation is ongoing. Quote.

We are continuing to work closely with law enforcement to hold those who abuse the initiative process accountable.

Like any business, Dan, they're bad actors. You know, in every industry has to take steps throughtout bad actors.

It's no different here.

Brandon Castillo has been running ballot measure campaigns for some twenty five years.

He's not involved in either.

I wonder how many of those were kidney bills.

He's not involved in either side of the billionaire tax issue. He says signature gathering could be so lucrative that people travel state to state. Online groups post where the jobs are and what they're paying the anti billionaire tax.

I gotta say the whole concept to paid signature gathering, I'm not a fan of.

Well, how often are you exiting a grocery store and they come up to you and they have a honey trap It is, hey sign this petition to protect Prop thirteen? Say you do it, and then they go, okay, we have this other one about a kidney bill, and then they start pressuring you to sign that one too because they have a live one.

So if they're.

Gathering signatures for five or six petitions and they lured you in with one that has broad public support, they just expect that you're going to stand there and sign them all, and then you're worth like one hundred bucks.

The Anti Billionaire Tax group paid fifteen dollars a signature. Some of these folks I've heard are making.

Yes, the billionaires that don't want to get taxed. They were spending all kinds of money on paid signature gathering to get their anti billionaire tax on the ballot, including to some of these firms that we're using less than legal methods of getting those signs natures.

And here's what I'm sure happens. And it's not just for the Billionaires Tax. I'm sure it goes for all of them. You just know that you need a certain number of signatures, so you go to one of these firms and you hire them. It's not like the people are working in house for you and you're the one that tells them to go out and be unethical. You just hire another company and you assume that what they're

The Anti Billionaire Tax group paid fifteen dollars a signature.

Some of these folks I've heard are making, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a year or even in a short season where they're collecting. You know, just do the math. If you stand in front of a store and you get one hundred signatures at ten bucks a pop, you know, that's a pretty good chunk of money.

Group sponsoring ballot measures check the validity of signatures and so do county election offices.

So when we receive the petition and we have the signatures.

Jim Irizari walked me through the process for San Mateo County. Every signature on a petition is digitized and then compared to that voter signatures from past elections. Even a more popular raceis with hundreds of thousands of ballots each get scanned by the human eye.

We will have a person look at every one of those signatures and compare them to.

The voter registration card or the history on that card.

I'm glad they do the history because I'll tell you right now, my signature looks nothing like it did when I was eighteen and filled out that voter registration card.

Oh no, it changes over time.

I gave up a long time ago, and now I just do a squiggle R, SQUIGGLEW. Seriously, can anybody in twenty twenty six that's not an English major even do cursive.

No, which is why maybe they look at it. But how many ballots do they actually throw out because the signatures don't match.

For prior signatures that we've reviewed, even when is three hundred thousand signatures, Even if those when three hundred thousand signatures. We hire anywhere between fifteen to twenty people just to do that. That are signature.

Verifiers here, as already tells me.

If they come upon a signature gatherer or petitioned circulator as they're called, who appears to be cheating.

They're certified chicken scratch experts.

By the way, I don't even think AI can do that yet, verify a signature.

Her as Alrea tells me, if they come upon a signature gatherer or petitioned circulator as they're called, who appears to be cheating, they'll contact law enforcement.

So the greatest danger we have here is undermining the integrity of the electoral process. That's why it is a felony to do that, and also the circulator that is violating the law will go to jail for that.

The group called Building a Better California is sponsoring the anti billionaire tax measure. A spokesperson says, because of the item report, they instructed our campaign's signature contractor to screen out any and all signatures submitted by mister Brunson, but so far they haven't found any quote. We think it's likely that mister Brunson got scared off by the fact that he was featured in the ABC seven story.

Oh, that's definitely possible. Once he realized who Dan Noys was, he knew that if he turned in those signatures, those obviously fraudulent signatures, he was going back to prison probably.

The group said they also have a zero tolerance policy against any type of fraud. The San Francisco Die's office confirms they have received a referral, but won't comment on the status of this case. Now, I left messages on brunson social media, his email accounts, and.

Thus he slid into his DMS.

Dan.

I don't think he's going to respond his.

Email accounts and phone numbers, but have received no response at this point.

Wow, what a world that ends.

Yeaholute, and it's wild that there are people, groups of people who state the state the state to do this because it can be big money.

Make some real money to it. Absolutely well, you're always quick with questions, Joseph quick Cadillike reflection.

Thank you, Thank you, Dan Scott.

You know it's probably people that grew up being a carnie and this is what they graduate to do, is be a signature gatherer. You still travel all around, usually dress the same and you bother people.

A real respected profession. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is telephone number one. Eight hundred two to two two five to two two two. Here with an update on drugs and the Tenderloin, mister Randy Wang, the.

City attorney for San Francisco, David Chu is suing a corner store in the Tenderloin because they say, even though you can buy a whole bunch of drugs on the street, you can also buy a whole bunch of drugs inside this mini mark for more, here's k TVU Fox two in the bay.

We found methanphetamine, we found cannabis, we found other illegal tobacco products.

Utol drugs. This a competition down the street, hating on us because we've taken all the testimony.

Right Those connected to the business pushing back against these new allegations.

I mean, if you're operating a corner store voluntarily in the Tenderloin, something's up.

That's a rough job.

Those connected to the business pushing back against these new allegations.

Good evening.

I'm Greg Lee and I'm clutting Wall, San Francisco's city attorney, bringing that lawsuit forward today as the result of a year's long operation. This business on Eddy Street, which is called the Corner Store, is described as a hub.

Our original.

Is described as.

A hub for drug activity, and tonight the city Attorney wants it's shut down.

Attend KGB's Betty you Live at City Hall tonight after hearing from both sides.

Betty greg I stopped by the Corner Store just hours after this lawsuit was announced and workers they're denied selling drugs. They said they're actually being blamed for crime that's happening outside their doors. The Corner Store at Eddie and Levenworth was selling more than sodas and snacks, according to a lawsuit filed by the San Francisco City Attorney. Investigators say the shop was also selling met.

Well, apparently it's not just a hub for drugs. It's DFW.

Tell me about the store.

We sell torches, we sell snacks, we sell clothes, speakers.

Let's see, we don't.

Sell no drugs. We don't sell met They sell meth.

Outside upstanding business owner here by the way, what Corner Store also sells speakers in addition to Dorito's.

According to the complaint, investigators turned up meth a ghost gut illegal tobacco products and drug pay for nilia during a coordinated operation last year.

They said we seven drugs off the stove. Basically, that's what they're saying.

Because they found here's a picture of the myth.

This is the myth.

Oh man, Yeah, that's there. Ain't no mother math.

We always seem to get these stories on a Friday. Have you noticed that?

Oh man? Yeah, that's there. Ain't no mother meth.

Well, that's making the wall.

Ain't no.

Math.

This is the myth.

Oh man, Yeah, that's there. Ain't no mother meth. No adderall.

That's adderall.

Sure, you're not supposed to be selling that either. It ain't nothing going on.

We're just snorting adderall. What's wrong with you? That's totally normal.

It ain't nothing going on.

Have you ever witnessed such activity?

No?

Never, Just time me here record Cosmin's come here.

The city is asking a judge to shut the store down for one year.

The man, why is it so hard to shut down a store that's obviously operating illegally. It's the same thing with all the illegal pot stores in Los Angeles.

Because it's California and that's how we do business here.

The city is asking it.

You know, there's a measure on the LA ballot that says that we can't shut down illegal pot stores. So we're going to try to send them a tax bill at the voters say we can.

The city is asking a judge to shut the store down for one year. The man who identified himself as J Money said.

These names.

His family owns the business and insists it's being blamed for the chaos surrounding it. The city attorney said the corner store didn't just promote drug activity.

It became the drug dealer.

Became a drug sound even had to stove.

Every man on the street interview in this story is just gold. These are all of the store owners.

It was already legal activity in the neighborhood.

So you're saying, George, right now, it's the same.

That is tricked. If they stopped, if they stopped operating and stopped spelling meth at this store, there would still be people smelling, buying and selling meth outside.

If that's the store owner. For the record, that was not a denial.

Nope, So you're saying.

Right now, it's the same, and you know what, he's probably right.

City officials say, police responded to multiple incidents at ordinary the store over a two span.

There were thefts, there were assaults, violence, There were employees from this comedian store that had criminal records. So the San Francisco Police Department diderrate and what they discovered was the evidence of a drug operation.

City Attorney David then they also have illegal gambling machines in there.

Oh yeah, same neighborhood.

City Attorney David Cho says his office has now sued or shut down thirteen convenience stores tied to alleged criminal activity, including SF Discount Market in the Tenderloin.

This is showing another action that the city is taking from its administrative capability to shut down the hubs for different parts of our opening our drug market, in this case the meth dealing.

I mean, at this point, outside of maybe a mom and pop restaurant that's been there for forty years that doesn't know what to do, you have to look real suspicious that anyone that wants to operate a store in the Tenderloin, who would want to.

Do that for a living.

And the city says the ultimate goal here is to put pressure on the property owners to bring in law abiding businesses. That better serve.

You're not going to get any law abiding businesses that want to rent space in.

The tenure line, not even clothes. Well, we've learned a lot in that last segment. Stay away from that neighborhood.

I ain't no mother Smith.