New York City Mayor Mamdani recently released promotional videos in Mandarin, Bengali, and Spanish to introduce the free Broadway ticket program. Among them, the Mandarin version has sparked speculation among netizens about whether AI was used for audio enhancement or voice improvement. However, Mamdani’s press secretary and chief spokesperson, Joe Calvello, has publicly denied that the video was produced using AI.
In the Mandarin video, Mamdani introduces the event for about 41 seconds continuously. Since he has rarely publicly used Mandarin in the past, some netizens believe that his pronunciation is too perfect. However, Phil Wong, a city council member familiar with Mandarin, stated that Mamdani’s pronunciation is quite accurate and should be the result of prior repeated practice. Chinese-American city councilor Wen Yi Zhuang also noted that Mamdani’s Chinese accent is good but still carries a noticeable non-native rhythm.
According to Mamdani’s spokesperson, he studied Mandarin while attending the Bronx High School of Science, but did not continue using it after graduating in 2010.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxspeoTRjuk