Aug 26, 2025

San Francisco Chronicle Covers Newsom’s Use of AI to Post Trump Memes. Hany Farid Reacts.

From San Francisco Chronicle

Newsom has touted AI’s lofty potential. Now he’s using it to post a stream of Trump memes

By Sophia Bollag

On a sunny day earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom stood shoulder-to-shoulder with tech leaders at Google’s San Francisco campus overlooking the Bay Bridge and touted the transformative powers of artificial intelligence.

AI, Newsom said, is key to California’s economy and has the potential to advance humankind.

“We’re here in that spirit of acceleration, of evolution, of innovation, the entrepreneurial spirit that defines the best of the San Francisco Bay Area,” Newsom said at the event announcing agreements with Google and other tech companies to provide free AI tools to California schools. “No other state is doing more … to actually showcase in real time how generative AI can solve real problems...”

When he saw that one, Hany Farid said he laughed out loud...

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Hany Farid is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences and the School of Information at UC Berkeley.

Last updated: August 28, 2025