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Mayor Mamdani calls AI-generated images depicting him with Jeffrey Epstein 'incredibly difficult'
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Feb 4, 2026
Modified Feb 4, 2026
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Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By
Brigid Bergin
Published Feb 4, 2026
Modified Feb 4, 2026
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday said a series of fake images circulating on social media platforms purporting to show him and his mother with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein are "incredibly difficult,” while warning of the need for more robust regulation of artificial intelligence at all levels of government.
After the U.S. Department of Justice released the latest trove of Epstein files, several AI-generated photographs began circulating online, showing the mayor as a child with his mother, film director Mira Nair, posing with Epstein and others.
Multiple outlets have reported that images were generated using an AI tool developed by Google.
In one of the images, Mamdani and Nair appear in a group photo with Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, former President Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. Another shows Nair holding a baby Mamdani with Epstein, Clinton, Maxwell and Bezos, which would make the photo 34 years old.
The Associated Press reported that the account that originally generated the photos described itself as “an AI-powered meme engine.”
“At a personal level, it is incredibly difficult to see images that you know to be fake, that are patently photoshopped and AI-generated, and yet can reach across the entirety of the world in an era of misinformation,” Mamdani said Wednesday.
This is not the first time Mamdani has fallen victim to an attack through AI images.
During last year’s mayoral race, Andrew Cuomo’s campaign briefly published an AI-generated ad that included an image of Mamdani eating rice with his hands. The depiction was followed by a series of characters, including a Black man shoplifting while wearing a keffiyeh and an older white woman driving drunk, all claiming to be “criminals for Mamdani.”
At the time, the Cuomo campaign said the ad was released in error.
During her State of the State address earlier this month, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed a ban on the use of generative AI in political campaigns in New York. Mamdani said he was also discussing the issue of AI in city schools with his schools chancellor earlier on Wednesday. New York City’s education department is also expected to publish new rules on the use of AI tools in classrooms later this month.
Still, on Wednesday, Mamdani gave a nod to the adage, “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes,” and said it was important for government officials to take deliberate steps to rein in the abuses of this evolving technology.
“ We also have to work to ensure that we have a city, we have a state, we have a country that actually has a regulatory system when it comes to AI,” said Mamdani, “because frankly what it looks like today is a system that is ill-equipped for the speed and the reach of the technologies in front of us.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misquoted the mayor and has been updated to reflect his comment that the images described were "incredibly difficult."
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Brigid Bergin
Brigid Bergin is an award-winning senior reporter on the People and Power desk. She is fiercely committed to telling stories that help people engage and support democracy. In 2022, she hosted a live, ten-week call-in politics show ahead of the midterm elections called The People's Guide to Power. Brigid's reporting in 2017 included some of the first coverage of a political newcomer now known as AOC. In 2016, she broke the news of a voter purge in Brooklyn just days before New York’s presidential primary, triggering city, state and federal investigations. Brigid also guest hosts The Brian Lehrer Show and All Of It. She graduated from the University at Albany and the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-723-4719.
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