Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams might not be in office anymore, but unfortunately he’s still finding ways to make sure we see more of him than we’d ever like to.
In a post shared on X, Adams shared a shirtless snap showing him holding a pepper and, unfortunately, a very suggestive cucumber. L “65 years old and I’ve never been in better shape!” the former mayor turned artificial intelligence data center salesman captioned the photo. “A few years before I became Mayor, diabetes nearly cost me my eyesight. I changed my diet, changed my lifestyle, and changed my life.”
He added, alongside the deeply unsettling photo, that he and his son are now having a competition to see who will be in the best shape by their next birthdays. “I’m going to win, Jordan,” he wrote. “My secret weapon: VEGGIES. This photo isn’t about showing off (okay, maybe a little bit of that too). It’s about showing what’s possible when you take control of your health. Eat your vegetables!”
My initial reaction was to believe that the image was generative AI, especially given Adams’ fondness of the technology, but AI detecting services ZeroGPT and NoteGPT both determined that the photo is very likely real. It makes the fact that we had to see it all the more upsetting.
Adams, who has since been succeeded by the infinitely more popular Zohran Mamdani, drew a lot of criticism and controversy during his tenure as mayor. He was accused of bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations until the federal charges were dropped thanks to intervention from the Donald Trump administration.
Even Andy Cohen wasn’t happy with Adams’ “horrible” tenure, ripping into the then-outgoing NYC Mayor on his last day in office. "I mean, he got his pardons," Cohen said, while holding a shot glass. "I’m just saying, great. You got your pardons. Go off into the sunset. We’ll fiddle with what we have, with what you’ve left us with."
