Imran Khan's 'Victory Speech' from Prison Shows the Danger and Promise of AI
Imran Khan, Pakistan's former prime minister, has spent the country's entire election campaign in jail, disqualified from running in what experts have described as one of the least credible general elections in the country's 76-year history.
But from behind bars he has rallied his supporters in recent months with speeches that use artificial intelligence to replicate his voice, part of a tech-savvy strategy his party has deployed to evade a military crackdown.
And on Saturday, when official tallies showed that candidates aligned with his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), won the most seats in a surprise result that threw the country's political system into chaos, it was the AI -voice of Mr Khan declaring victory.
'I had complete confidence that you would all come out and vote. You have lived up to my confidence in you, and your meteoric rise has stunned everyone,” said the soft, slightly robotic voice in the minute-long video, which used historical footage and footage of Mr Khan and included a disclaimer about the origins of AI . The speech rejected the victory claim of Mr. Khan, Nawaz Sharif, and urged supporters to defend the victory.
As concerns grow about the use of artificial intelligence and its ability to deceive, especially in elections, Mr. Khan's videos provide an example of how AI can work to circumvent oppression. But, experts say, they also increase fears about its potential dangers.
“In this case, it's for a good cause, perhaps a cause we would support — someone who is being held on trumped-up corruption charges and who can talk to his supporters,” said Toby Walsh, author of “Faking It: Artificial Intelligence in a human world” and professor at the University of New South Wales. “But at the same time it undermines our faith in the things we see and hear.”
Mr Khan, a charismatic former cricket star, was removed from power in 2022 and jailed last year, accused, among other things, of leaking state secrets. He and his supporters have said military leaders orchestrated his removal, an accusation they reject.
During the election campaign, officials prevented his candidates from campaigning and censored party coverage. In response, organizers held online rallies on platforms like YouTube and TikTok.
In December, his party began using AI to spread Mr Khan's message, creating speeches from notes he passed to his lawyers from prison. explanations of the partyand put them on video.
This is not the first time that political parties have used artificial intelligence.
In South Korea, the then opposition People Power Party has created an AI-powered avatar of his presidential candidate, Yoon Suk Yeol, who interacted with voters virtually and spoke in slang and jokes to appeal to a younger demographic ahead of the 2022 elections. (He won.)
In the United States, Canada and New Zealand, politicians have used AI to create dystopian images to bolster their arguments, or to expose the technology's potentially dangerous capabilities, as in a video with Jordan Peele and a deepfake Barack Obama.
During the 2020 state elections in Delhi, India, Manoj Tiwari, a candidate of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, created a AI deepfake of himself speaking the Haryanvi dialect to target voters in that demographic. Unlike the Khan video, this one did not appear to be clearly labeled as AI
“The integration of AI, especially deepfakes, into political campaigns is not a passing trend, but one that will continue to evolve over time,” said Saifuddin Ahmed, assistant professor at the School of Communication and Information at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. .