Using AI to resurrect dead political stalwarts for election campaigning is going mainstream. How should we feel about it?
This news break chronicled an emergent tactic among global politicians to leverage the popularity of the deceased using AI for current political gains. In Indonesia, dead army dictator Suharto, was resurrected using AI encouraging people to come out and vote for his right-wing party. In Belgium, the center-right Christian Democratic and Flemish (Cd&v) party created a compelling 30 second deepfake video of former prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene, talking about the need to “respect voters.”
In India, a regional party called Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) resurrected an iconic poet-turned-politician, M Karunanidhi, thrice in the span of three months to felicitate party workers and praise the leadership of his son. It raised troubling ethical and legal questions on ascribing opinions to the dead while resurrecting yesteryear political stalwarts to promote today’s leader.
The story sparked a public conversation around AI-resurrections, and led to multiple follow up stories in national dailies including The Economic Times, The Times of India, The Indian Express and The Financial Express. Global publications such as The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, and Semafor cited my findings.