Ahead of India's 2024 elections, some politicians are using voice cloning tools to send personalized messages and AI songs featuring Modi are gaining traction
my latest for @restofworld https://restofworld.org/... Sagar Vishnoi / @sagarvishnoi : Got quoted in @restofworld on how AI is changing Indian politics. Over last few weeks, Modi's digitally rendered voice hs bn used fr videos not just in Hindi,but also in south Indian languages like Tamil, Telugu & Kannada, captivating audiences in regions https://restofworld.org/... Vicki Turk / @vickiturk : This is a great story for showing how gen AI tools could influence voters beyond straightforward mis-/disinformation. Singing Modi is a fun meme - but also reaches voters in different languages. By @NilChristopher for @restofworld https://restofworld.org/... LinkedIn: Vedant Sapte : Personalised messaging and real-time voice translation using AI tools surely has an untapped potential in the political spectrum. … Itika Sharma Punit : Beyond the meme songs about Narendra #Modi and Giorgia Meloni, there's a larger application of AI-generated content in India — especially ahead of the 2024 elections. … Nilesh Christopher : AI Modi started as a joke, but it could win him votes — Over the last few weeks, Modi's digitally rendered voice has been used for videos not just in Hindi … Mustafa R. : What Social Media was to the last two elections for almost any country; AI will be that for the upcoming two elections. (i.e. This upcoming election & the next one). … Forums: r/india : AI Modi started as a joke, but it could win him votes
Context & Ripple Effects
This early campaign use of cloned voices and AI-generated music shows generative AI being applied to political distribution, not only to deceptive content. Later coverage documented AI voice outreach at much larger campaign scale before the 2024 vote.
The multilingual use case matters because it turns a single political persona into locally tailored media. Post-election coverage similarly identified AI language translation as a consequential election use, while finding the feared misinformation crisis less clear-cut.
First-order effects
- Politicians and campaign teams can deliver personalized, multilingual outreach without recording each message or producing separate creative assets for every language.
- Modi-related synthetic audio and songs give supporters highly shareable formats that can carry political messaging through social platforms and regional-language audiences.
Second-order effects
- Campaign communications shifts toward rapid testing of localized synthetic formats, increasing the value of distribution networks and audience targeting alongside conventional media appearances.
- Platforms, voters, and journalists face a harder attribution problem: persuasive political audio can be engaging and localized even when it is not straightforward falsehood.
Third-order effects
- If such uses become routine, election AI governance will need to distinguish consented campaign personalization and translation from impersonation and deceptive deepfakes rather than treating all synthetic media alike.
- The enduring advantage may accrue to campaigns that pair generative tools with strong regional distribution, making access to trusted channels as important as access to models.
The trend: Generative AI is becoming political communications infrastructure for multilingual localization and personalized voter outreach, with risks extending beyond classic misinformation.