AI in election campaigns in India: when a dead father campaigns for his son
The elections in the world's largest democracy are still running and are the first in times of AI hype. What this means has long been apparent.
(Bild: siam.pukkato/Shutterstock.com)
Parliamentary elections are underway in India and the Election Commission has now warned political parties against using AI-generated deepfakes to spread disinformation. If they are made aware of a video or audio file in this regard, they must delete it within three hours, the Hindustan Times quotes the authority as saying. At the same time, the newspaper explains that parties have not been banned from using AI tools. According to media reports, there are numerous examples of the use of AI technology in election campaigns. According to the online magazine Rest of World, for example, several candidates are advertising with videos featuring long-dead personalities campaigning for them. In another case, a well-known politician was interviewed by an alleged AI clone.
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Rest of World reports on a candidate in the south of the subcontinent, for example, who has videos distributed in which his well-known father, who died years ago, says in Tamil: "Even though I have died, my soul is with you." The AI-generated copy also assures that "my son" will work to improve conditions and the progress of "your children". In January, a popular politician from the influential DMK party in the state of Tamil Nadu – who died in 2018 – spoke to their youth congress in a video that was also AI-generated. According to Al Jazeera, there have already been several such AI-generated appearances by the popular politician, with the copy repeatedly praising his son, the current head of the state government.
While these examples do not appear to violate the Election Commission's guidelines, probably because they are not directly disinformation, there are also examples of this. Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh, two of Bollywood's most famous stars, described videos in late April in which they allegedly call for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be voted out of office as AI-generated fakes. There have also been reports of AI-generated voices of campaigners calling people and soliciting their votes in seemingly natural conversations. Something similar has already happened in the USA, where an important election is also due this year. Deepfakes have already played a role there too. In India, however, there are signs of what is still possible.
(mho)