Representative image | Photo provided by: Reuters
The Aam Aadmi Party last month posted an AI-generated deepfake of BR Ambedkar allegedly congratulating former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, prompting an AI-generated response from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In the run-up to the Delhi Assembly elections, this interaction reignited the debate on the use of AI in political campaigns and its role in elections. This use of deepfakes has increased since Grok, an AI chatbot and image generation service provided by X (formerly Twitter), became publicly available. Unlike the policies adopted by other AI chatbots, X’s owner Elon Musk decided not to ban images based on real-life political figures, and as a result, such content is prohibited on Grok. is rapidly increasing.
Nehru deepfakes power parody
For example, the It is ironic that we are constantly blaming them for being the cause of modern diseases. The account @The_Nehru has gained over 20,000 followers. The account is “based on a recent parliamentary debate where Prime Minister Modi started criticizing President Nehru, and he does so most of the time,” its creator, alias JLN, said in a direct message to X. He told The Hindu. Create a parody account and mock what is said. ”
Adhiraj Singh, a comedian who writes about humor in India and is one of the co-contributors to a satirical page called The Man of Delhi (which targets, for example, The Man of Bombay), believes that AI could be sustainable for Indian crops. I was skeptical that it would be an interesting mainstay. account. “Satire pages masquerading as politicians are nothing new, but AI tools have made it easier to flood our timelines with garbage, ultimately rendering satire and commentary meaningless and encouraging other types of It becomes inseparable from the noise,” said Singh. “I think it really depends on who uses it and what they use it for.”
He added that he was concerned that this type of content was becoming more common. “Satire, misinformation and hate speech are being used interchangeably without accountability. Even the people and news sources who mistake ‘satire’ pages for real news aren’t even news anymore. Although it is not sustainable, we are now in the quagmire of post-singularity AI. ”
political influence
In fact, this use of deepfakes is not limited to political parties or parody accounts. A political commentator posted a photo of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who resembles businessman and entrepreneur George Soros, with a caption calling him Mr Gandhi’s “mentor”.
In a report on generative AI deepfakes and India, Logically, a startup focused on disinformation, says, “When assessing whether there is any impact, focusing only on certain types of content can lead to disinformation “This could lead to ambiguity in how the campaign is run.” In fact, the result lies in the cumulative impact of content displayed endlessly on various forums. ”
In 2023, the then Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar complained about Google Gemini AI’s response to the question “Is Narendra Modi a fascist?” It was a violation of Indian law. AI chatbots like those offered by Meta and OpenAI currently mostly refuse to answer this particular question, but so do other chatbots.
However, Grok continues to provide unvarnished political responses and does not limit the production of politically composite images. So far, no similar backlash has come, even as Nehru’s satirical account has soared in popularity (some posts have been viewed more than 100,000 times). In fact, according to JLN, the account has not even faced any organized trolling yet. “They may be confused as to what kind of attack can incapacitate me,” said the account holder.
issued – January 4, 2025 9:45 PM IST
