In the wake of Zohran Mamdani’s emphatic Democratic mayoral primary victory in June, some new keyboard warriors have emerged to counteract the democratic socialist’s famously strong online communications strategy. “New York deserves public safety, functioning systems, and serious leadership. Not activist experiments. Not fantasy economics. Not slogans that burn the city down just to say you stood for something,” reads a post on X from July 14th. “Welcome to CityDeskNYC. We fight for a safer, saner, stronger New York. Follow if you’re done pretending.”
There is no “we” behind those words, no flesh and blood with a stake in events to agonistically “fight” for anything. The @CityDeskNYC account on X is the product of the AI vehicle Rhetor, which specializes in automated communications. “We build AI-powered surrogates trained on your tone and platform,” reads the Rhetor bio on X. “Your voice, automated, aligned, always on.” Since going live on July 14th, CityDeskNYC has over 4,000 AI-generated posts, all of which are anti-Mamdani.
The vast majority of the posts are text, but the account has also put out AI-generated videos pretending to be New Yorkers against leftist politics, including one featuring a blue-collar-coded person of color on the subway who says: “Communism is like a group project where everyone gets the same grade, but only one person does the work.” Another features an older white woman speaking from the backseat of a moving car, talking about how she had to “flee Russia,” though a driver is conspicuously absent. All of the posts are labeled “Automated” on X.
— CityDeskNYC (@CityDeskNYC) July 14, 2025
Saihajpreet Singh, the creator of Rhetor and CityDeskNYC, is a 24-year-old software developer working with a small team out of Ottawa. His previous project, DOGEai, is a right-leaning reply bot that has gathered over 100,000 followers on X, and has been reposted by the likes of Elon Musk and President Trump. Despite the anti-leftist nature of both projects, Singh distances himself from the political implications of his work, telling Courthouse News on Thursday that his personal politics are “not right-leaning or left-leaning,” though he expressed doubts about Mamdani’s “very big promises.” He says that he built the anti-Mamdani bot due to the attention the race has been getting since his primary victory, and acknowledged that his stance leaves the bot an enticing product for right-leaning politicians in the race.
Even as CityDeskNYC has gathered only 307 followers so far, there’s no questioning the value of Singh’s project for political communications. He says that politicians have already reached out to him, asking, “Can I have a version of this thing for myself?” A First Amendment lawyer who spoke to Courthouse News noted that if it functions correctly, the bot could potentially reduce the “small fortune” it costs to run an office dealing with communications, potentially evening the playing field for candidates who don’t have access to wealthy patrons.
Singh’s framing of projects like CityDeskNYC and Rhetor more broadly, is not unlike the millionaire archetype who makes his fortune selling shovels during the gold rush – he’s offering a tool to meet demand, so who is anyone to judge? Countering that perspective, some European Union politicians, who generally proceed with more deliberation on tech than their US counterparts, have already been expressing concern over the implications of products like Singh’s. The European Democratic Party urged caution in using these technologies in an opinion piece published in La Voce last month, and released an AI-generated video to make their case, with lifelike subjects similar to those used by Singh, making statements such as: “Freedom of speech doesn’t matter to me. I’ve never had a thought of my own.”
“We are excited about the opportunities offered by AI, which is why we are deeply aware of our responsibility to shape its development,” said the party’s Secretary General, Sandro Gozi. “AI must remain a tool at the service of humanity, not an alternative authority.”
