Steve Hilton releases AI ad pledging to cancel California high-speed rail project

In a newly released AI-generated spot, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton paints a vision of California flourishing under his administration, featuring reduced gas prices, bustling shopping districts and a transformed Skid Row turned into an upscale area. The advertisement asserts that he would terminate the state’s high-speed rail program and convert the unfinished infrastructure into a “Government Failures National Monument.”

By contrast, the ad portrays a hypothetical Xavier Becerra governorship as a cold, desolate state with gas prices soaring to $8 a gallon, increased taxes, and a public-health crisis on Skid Row. Hilton accuses Becerra of funneling additional funds into the rail project, which he labels a “railroad to nowhere.” The ad appears as the candidates vie to succeed Gavin Newsom in the November 3 election, where issues such as affordability, homelessness and government spending dominate the debate.