Pakistani politician deepfakes himself to deliver a speech from behind bars
- Reference: 1702963694
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/12/19/ousted_and_isolated_pakistan_pm/
- Source link:
That politician was Imran Khan, elected prime minister in 2018 but stood down from his role following a no-confidence motion in April 2022. The cricketer-turned-politician's removal from office sparked public protests – which Khan [1]courted , to the displeasure of the ruling party.
Khan was locked up and convicted in August 2023 on charges alleging he illegally sold state gifts. He was sentenced to three years in jail and his conviction barred him from political office for five years.
[2]
That hasn't stopped him campaigning for Pakistan's election – to be held on February 8, 2024 – with tactics including an online rally staged last weekend.
[3]
[4]
Staged by the party he represents, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the almost five-hour [5]event [VIDEO] that culminated in a four-minute speech by an AI version of Khan.
According to [6]Agence France-Presse (AFP) the video was based on notes the former PM sent to his lawyers. Those notes were recorded and fed into a tool from AI firm ElevenLabs that clones voices from existing speech samples.
[7]
Footage of Khan was played while his AI-generated voice delivered the [8]address . A caption appeared at intervals notifying viewers of the synthetic nature of the voice.
While some noted that the grammar was a little off, others praised the effort.
[9]Indian politicians say Apple warned them of state-sponsored attacks
[10]So much for Pakistan's plan for digital economy – it's turned off the internet
[11]Pakistan turns its back on crypto to keep anti-terrorism watchdogs happy
[12]How a dispute over IP addresses led to a challenge to internet governance
PTI [13]celebrated the event and special message as "groundbreaking."
Internet interruption watcher NetBlocks reported social media platforms were throttled during the rally. The outfit [14]noted that internet outages during the event were "consistent with previous instances of internet censorship targeting opposition leader Imran Khan and his party PTI."
X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube were all disrupted on a nationwide-scale ahead of the virtual gathering, according to NetBlocks. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/26/pakistan_internet_outage_disrupts_protests/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZYF32DoFZTNmWSs9I6JhKgAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZYF32DoFZTNmWSs9I6JhKgAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZYF32DoFZTNmWSs9I6JhKgAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxA5fuSUINc
[6] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/18/imran-khan-deploys-ai-clone-to-campaign-from-behind-bars-in-pakistan
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZYF32DoFZTNmWSs9I6JhKgAAABg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://twitter.com/PTIofficial/status/1736491400156389747
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/01/india_apple_state_attack_warnings/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/11/pakistan_protest_internet_cut/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/24/pakistan_wants_more_ai_less/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/03/nrs_afrinic_review/
[13] https://twitter.com/PTIofficial/status/1736549812877578470
[14] https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1736639082795540983
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: AI-synthesized stump speech?
Well, he didn't get out on bail... so he had to prepare his pitch another way.
More seriously though, I do hope he's realized that if he can use AI to deliver a convincing-enough "Imran Khan" speech... so can his opponents. Putting words into rivals' mouths in 3, 2, 1...
It had to happen some day, I guess, and now it has. And indeed, this is liable to become a political tool to wreak havoc with the opposition. However, in democratic countries, even being a politician does not grant you immunity from libel cases if you put words in someone else's mouth, and your opponent will pounce on you if you try (and he'll win). So doing it openly is a big no-no, but that doesn't mean that covert machinations are impossible to realize.
After all, a well-known politician who specializes in nothing but demonizing his opponents to the everlasting joy of his base only needs to drop a hint and at least some of them will rush to realize a deepfake of their "hated" opponent saying ugly things.
It will happen, the only question is when.
Re: AI-synthesized stump speech?
Some would say he is batty .... some would say he has balls.
I would say that he is in for 36 months, after which he will be out.
And when he is out he may (eventually) be back in ..... office!
----------> Mines the one with the box in the pocket for protection!
Re: AI-synthesized stump speech?
And according to Jemima Goldsmith,
Ah, this seam of cricket puns does crease me up…
Re: AI-synthesized stump speech?
It's all the work of spin doctors.
Re: AI-synthesized stump speech?
I don't think we'll 'run out' of them soon!
In the future
The ultra rich will be able to sent their simulant to do the jail time while they cruise the Mediterranean.
Well, this practice is sure to be all over the Inter Nets. Will we be best off using Net scape? What is Edge based on?
Does using AI mean Dot Net has to be installed? It's not on my old Pavillion. That reminds me to try an SSD on it. I'm fed up with the slow spinner HDD. Needs a better pace.
Great catch! This newfangled genAI thingamabob requires at least Mosaic++ with the dot-sharp-net framework, a 768 multi-thread super core CPU, and a pair of RTX 9998X TNT GPUs. Otherwise, you won't be allowed to vote.
AI-synthesized stump speech?
I mean, is that really cricket, Mr. Khan?