NEW YORK, Aug 19 — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has come up with a decidedly low-tech response to claims that artificial intelligence helped him speak several languages on camera: a blooper reel showing just how many times he got it wrong.

Mamdani released the outtakes yesterday after videos of him speaking Mandarin, Bengali and Spanish while promoting a Broadway ticket giveaway prompted some viewers to question whether his language skills had been digitally enhanced.

His response was considerably more entertaining than a formal denial.

The reel showed the mayor repeatedly stumbling over his lines, abandoning takes and trying again, accompanied by the cheeky caption: “Could AI do this TAMBIEN?”

También means “also” in Spanish, turning the AI accusations into a joke about the very human business of practising until you finally nail the take.

The fuss began after Mamdani appeared in a series of multilingual videos promoting a city initiative with the Theatre Development Fund offering more than 2,000 free Broadway tickets to New York City high school students.

His Mandarin clip attracted particular attention, with viewers praising his accent and pronunciation.

The reaction was apparently so positive that some critics began wondering whether AI had helped produce the polished result.

Mamdani’s press secretary and chief spokesman Joe Calvello pushed back at the speculation, declaring that the Mandarin video was “NOT AI.”

His office said Mamdani studied Mandarin while in high school, although he had not regularly spoken the language since.

If anything, the suspicion appeared to be a backhanded compliment.

Mandarin speakers who commented on the video largely praised his pronunciation while also picking up occasional mistakes — the sort of imperfections perhaps better explained by someone diligently learning a script than by artificial intelligence.

Bengali speakers also praised Mamdani’s effort in Bangla.

The 34-year-old mayor, who was born in Kampala, Uganda, and raised in New York, has frequently used different languages in videos and campaign appearances as part of his efforts to reach the city’s diverse communities.

The latest clips were promoting a Broadway programme announced by City Hall and the Theatre Development Fund on August 13.

Under the initiative, New York students in grades nine through 12 can enter a lottery for more than 2,000 free tickets across seven productions.

Participating shows include The Great Gatsby, Stranger Things: The First Shadow and Buena Vista Social Club.

It is also not the first time Mamdani has faced suspicions that technology was helping with his language skills.

During his mayoral campaign, critics similarly questioned Spanish-language videos featuring him, prompting his team to release footage of the failed takes behind the finished product.

This time, Mamdani appears to have settled on a simple way of proving there is a human behind the polished performance: Show everyone the bits that went wrong.