In South Korea, a technological experiment ahead of the elections on 9 March. The team of People Power Party candidate, conservative Yoon Suk-yeol, 61, has developed a digital avatar. It uses a language developed by Artificial Intelligence with the aim of attracting the youngest voters. Since it debuted on January 1st, the avatar named ‘AI Yoon’ (AI stands for artificial intelligence) has attracted millions of views and tens of thousands of people have asked questions. It is the first time in the world that a deepfake, that is an artificially generated video, is official. There have been examples in the past, like the video of Barack Obama insulting Donald Trump, but they were fakes.
The real candidate Yoon recorded more than 3,000 sentences – 20 hours of audio and video – to provide enough data for a local tech company to create the avatar. What the avatar says is written by the politician’s team. The approach paid off. AI Yoon’s statements made headlines in the South Korean media and seven million people visited the “Wiki Yoon” site to ask questions of the avatar.
“The political establishment has been too slow in the face of a rapidly changing society,” explains Baik Kyeong-hoon, chief of staff of the politician, who includes many young people between the ages of 20 and 30.
Source: Ansa
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