Political parties in India used AI technology to create deepfake videos and audio of deceased political leaders, including M. Karunanidhi and J. Jayalalithaa, to campaign for elections and promote current leaders.
During India's 2024 election campaign period, political parties extensively used AI technology to create deepfake content featuring deceased political leaders. The DMK party used AI to resurrect M. Karunanidhi, who died in 2018, in multiple videos where he praised his son MK Stalin's leadership and criticized opposition parties. Chennai-based firm Muonium created these deepfakes using publicly available data to train speech models. Similarly, deceased politician J. Jayalalithaa, who died in 2016, was featured in AI-generated voice messages criticizing the current Tamil Nadu government. These 'ghost appearances' became popular campaign tools, with AI creator Divyendra Jadoun reporting a 'huge surge' of requests for deepfake content. The technology was used for voice cloning, chatbots, and mass distribution through WhatsApp to up to 400,000 people for 100,000 rupees ($1,200). Government officials, including Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, warned that deepfakes pose 'a serious threat to democracy and social institutions.' The AI-generated content was used both for promoting candidates and mocking political opponents, with videos showing rivals in compromising situations or singing inappropriate songs. While some videos were labeled as AI-generated, experts warned about the potential for misinterpretation and the erosion of trust in authentic information.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that inadvertently generate or spread incorrect or deceptive information, which can lead to inaccurate beliefs in users and undermine their autonomy. Humans that make decisions based on false beliefs can experience physical, emotional or material harms
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed