Baik Kyeong-hoon , director of the"AI Yoon" team, explaining how the digital avatar of Yoon Suk-yeol seen on the screen is conducting an election campaign. — by AFP
From a deepfake video of Barack Obama insulting Donald Trump to failed New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang campaigning in the metaverse, AI technology has been used in elections before. The real Yoon recorded more than 3,000 sentences – 20 hours of audio and video –` to provide enough data for a local deepfake technology company to create the avatar.
"If we had only produced politically correct statements, we would not have this reaction," Baik said.When answering questions posed by users, AI Yoon mockingly refers to President Moon and his rival Lee as"Moon Ding Dong" and"Lee Ding Dong". The avatar politician has also used humour to try and deflect attention from Yoon's past scandals, for example claims he received inappropriate fruit gifts from a construction company when he was a senior prosecutor.
But the snark is working: while polling for the March 9 election remains neck-and-neck, Yoon has pulled ahead of rival Lee Jae-myung with voters in their 20s.Tech-savvy Baik and his two other team members – all in their 20s and 30s – are some of the youngest staffers in the sprawling Yoon campaign.