Spencer Pratt's viral AI ad campaign turned him into Los Angeles's biggest political phenomenon of the year.
Now Steve Hilton hired that same AI team to build his own California governor ad.
And in the new ad an AI version of Newsom lets slip the real reason Becerra got the job.
The Same Team That Built Spencer Pratt Into a Movement Just Signed With Hilton
Charles Curran built the AI videos that turned Spencer Pratt into the most talked about candidate in the Los Angeles mayor's race.
His videos cast Pratt as a superhero battling cartoon versions of Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom.
They racked up millions of views in weeks.
Now Curran is working for Steve Hilton – the Republican fighting to become California's next governor.
Hilton posted the new ad Thursday, crediting it as "our first ad from the people who created those fantastic videos for Spencer Pratt."
The title says everything you need to know: "The People vs The Machine."
The ad opens on a towering, post-apocalyptic monster known only as the Machine, with an AI version of Hilton already mid-battle against it.
Then real video cuts in – tent camps sprawling across sidewalks, gas pumps ticking past record highs.
From there it jumps to a lavish dinner scene, AI versions of Newsom and Kamala Harris seated among cartoonish lobbyist figures tagged Chamber of Commerce, Non Profits and Government Unions.
Newsom Picks Becerra and Becerra Loves What He Hears
Newsom's AI double switches off a television playing a mother begging for help, waving her off before admitting the real plan.
He's not staying in Sacramento. He's saving himself for the White House.
A fleet of robots wheels in the Machine to pick the next governor for him.
The screen spits out one name: Becerra.
Newsom mocks his own handpicked candidate as a Biden retread who lost track of hundreds of thousands of migrant children while running Health and Human Services.
Harris isn't satisfied and demands a recount. The Machine answers with Becerra a second time, then a third.
Robots finally drag the real prize into the room.
Newsom lays out the deal: "As long as you submit to the machine, you don't have to do anything."
Becerra's face lights up.
That's the moment. The Democrat handpicked to run the nation's largest state just got told his job requires nothing – and looked thrilled about it.
Cut to Becerra stumbling up the stairs at a campaign rally, pushed forward by a robot handler in an unmistakable nod to Biden's own tumble onstage in Philadelphia.
He parrots Newsom's talking points word for word and begs for four more years, only to get pelted with an object from the crowd anyway.
Meanwhile AI Hilton stands in the street with a nurse, a firefighter and a construction worker behind him, rattling off the state's highest taxes, highest gas prices and worst homelessness in the country.
The crowd marches with him toward the Machine itself.
The dinner party panics. The Machine morphs into a hundred foot robot and orders Hilton's supporters to stand down, warning them their taxes are about to go up.
Harris can only watch in horror, admitting nobody's ever stood up to the Machine before.
Hilton catches the California flag from a firefighter and charges the robot anyway.
The ad ends with Harris still scheming, asking Newsom to bring back disgraced ex candidate Eric Swalwell and run the whole thing back.
https://x.com/SteveHiltonx/status/2080307427732242839“>https://x.com/SteveHiltonx/status/2080307427732242839
Why a Cartoon Robot Might Be the Most Honest Ad in California Politics
Becerra was virtually invisible in this race right up until Eric Swalwell collapsed under misconduct allegations and Democratic power brokers needed a warm body fast.
That's the real machine the ad is describing – it picked Becerra not because voters wanted him, but because the party needed someone standing in the spot when the music stopped.
Hilton isn't walking into this fight on even ground.
Every poll out of California has him buried by double digits in a state the party machine has owned for decades – the same machine that now expects Becerra to coast into office without lifting a finger.
That's exactly why this ad matters more than a normal thirty second spot.
Pratt proved months ago that a cheap AI render can out draw a multimillion dollar TV buy, and Hilton just hired the team that did it, because when the polls are stacked against you, you stop playing the game the Machine wrote and start going viral instead.
Hilton's ad didn't invent Becerra's rise from afterthought to nominee. It just said the quiet part out loud – and let Becerra grin about it on camera, delighted that his entire campaign requires nothing from him at all.
Sources:
- Ward Clark, "This Is the Way: Watch CA Republican Steve Hilton's World-Class Campaign Ad," RedState, July 23, 2026.
- Britta Miller, "Spencer Pratt AI Ad Creator Makes Ad for Steve Hilton: 'The People vs The Machine,'" Washington Examiner, July 23, 2026.
- Ward Clark, "CA Gubernatorial Hopeful Xavier Becerra Has Jaw-Dropping Take on Illegal Alien Street Vendors," RedState, July 21, 2026.
