Political players, regional and national, have used it to spread misinformation, troll the opposition, and even resurrect dead politicians. It has also been used in a positive sense to help people - such as when the Prime Minister’s speech was translated in real time to a regional language using Bhashini AI. In the run up to polls, India truly saw it all in the last one year. 

Here’s a look back at some AI-generated election content that was so real that it was hard to tell whether they were fake or not. These clips stalled us in our steps and knocked people’s socks right off.

First in line is the video of actor Ranveer Singh who was seen criticising PM Modi. It turned out to be a deepfake created using an AI voice clone technology.

In the original clip, which was an interview with Asian News International (ANI), Singh praised the prime minister and celebrated India’s cultural heritage. Singh soon filed an FIR with the police.

Shortly before Singh’s deep fake, we saw another prominent actor Aamir Khan’s digitally altered video being shared on social media with false claims. Like how he was supporting the Congress party in these elections.

The deep fake video was apparently based on a clip from ‘Satyamev Jayate,’ a show Khan used to host.

A couple of days ago, an audio clip of a conversation between Aam Aadmi Party member Swati Maliwal and YouTuber activist Dhruv Rathee went viral for all the wrong reasons. It was totally fake and generated using AI. 

A voice similar to Maliwal, who had recently alleged assault inside Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house, can be heard explaining the same assault to Rathee in what seems to be a telephonic conversation. She can be heard alleging that Arvind and Sunita Kejriwal were present at the time of her assault.

The audio is incendiary as it claims that Rathee gets money from the UK to create YouTube videos against India’s biggest political party. An analysis by The Quint found that it is highly probable that an AI audio generator was used to synthesise the audio clip.

However, despite a widespread use of deep fakes as arsenal amid this election, the Election Commission is of the view that the deep fakes were handled as well as they had wanted to handle it.

In a press conference yesterday, chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said, “When we started this election, we were very worried about what kind of AI-generated content would come this time — someone's photo with someone, someone's voice being used with someone, or somebody shown fighting somewhere. But AI-generated misleading content actually came down.”

The commission had asked parties to remove fake content from their social media platforms shortly after deep fakes and cloned audios of actors and politicians started doing the rounds.

Will India Witness An Increase In The Use Of AI In Elections?

However, not all use of AI was for disinformation. Much of it was also for positive work which helped parties unbderstand constituencies for instance. 

“I think the (AI) usage is going to increase. We will see an increased usage of AI calls, AI video messages in the upcoming state elections of Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand. AI will also be used to understand the sentiment analysis and map the voters,” Sagar Vishnoi, a political consultant, told The Secretariat.

Key political parties in India are spending anywhere from Rs 40 crore to Rs 50 crore in AI, which accounts for 1-2 per cent of the campaign budget.

“For 2029, 70-80 per cent of the campaign work will be handled by the youth, right from social media to even vote mapping on the booth. The youth’s usage is going to increase multifolds with the advent of new (AI) tools,” added Vishnoi.

In an earlier interview with The Secretariat, Divyendra Jadoun, the founder of Polymath Synthetic Media Solutions and The Indian Deepfaker,’ had said that it’s very important for people to be aware.

“Don't believe everything you see," he added. "It's very difficult to detect high-quality deep fakes… if that content is taking our emotions to the next level, then we shouldn't share it and do a quick fact-check. Your instinct is the best deep fake detection algorithm."

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