How Indian politicians are using deepfakes for voter outreach; an estimated 50M+ AI voice calls were made in the two months before the elections in April 2024
India's elections are a glimpse of the AI-driven future of democracy. Politicians are using audio and video deepfakes of themselves …
The coverage also separates election-related AI use from purely deceptive content: subsequent reporting characterized much of parties’ use as constructive voter outreach despite disinformation concerns. That makes the provenance and disclosure of campaign content, rather than AI use alone, the central policy question.
First-order effects
Political campaigns gain a scalable way to deliver personalized-sounding outreach, extending candidate messaging beyond in-person events and conventional recorded calls.
Voters receive more campaign contact whose voice or video may be synthetic, raising the immediate importance of knowing whether a message is authentic, authorized, and attributable.
Second-order effects
Rival parties face pressure to match AI-enabled personalization and multilingual outreach or risk losing reach where synthetic calls become a standard campaign tool.
The same channels that make legitimate outreach efficient also make it harder for audiences to distinguish authorized campaign communications from impersonation or other misleading material.
Third-order effects
If this pattern persists, election governance may shift from treating deepfakes chiefly as prohibited content toward setting disclosure, authorization, and provenance standards for permitted synthetic campaigning.
Campaign advantage could increasingly depend on the ability to distribute localized AI-generated messages at scale, concentrating value in data, distribution networks, and operational capacity rather than production alone.
The trend: Election campaigns are moving toward AI-mediated, personalized mass communication, forcing governance to distinguish accountable synthetic outreach from deceptive political manipulation.
In India, sanctioned deepfakes have become a $60 million business opportunity, and Divyendra Singh Jadoun is the posterboy of this burgeoning industry. 🔗 https://www.wired.com/... [image]
Please read this feature co-written with @NilChristopher which unravels the various ways in which AI is being used by politicians. There are calls, videos, songs, resurrections and more! Thanks @amitkatwala for the smooth and swift editing! https://www.wired.com/...
In today's @WIRED magazine, @VarshaaBansal and I delve into the world of India's election Our investigation uncovered a slew of AI-driven tactics reshaping political outreach. Here are 8 audio/video AI campaign artifacts used in the 2024 Indian elections ⬇️
Today on @WIRED we're publishing this investigation from @NilChristopher and @VarshaaBansal about how sanctioned deepfakes have permeated the Indian elections at shocking scale. Voters are being bombarded with millions of calls and video messages from AI clones of politicians
The wild story of a gun-wielding political thug who once fired rifles inside polling booths and has now reinvented himself as a tech founder creating AI clones of politicians for 2024 India election. For @WIRED, @VarshaaBansal and I profile the poster boy of political deepfakes &…
More than 50 million AI-generated voice clone calls were made in the two months leading up to the start of the elections in April—and millions more will be made during voting, one of the country's largest business messaging operators told WIRED. https://www.wired.com/...
The global discourse on AI and deepfakes often focuses on misinformation. But many Indian politicians are using the technology for a different purpose: voter outreach. 🔗 https://www.wired.com/... 🎨Chloe Kendal [image]
NEW: Indian voters have received more than 50 million AI-generated calls in the voice of politicians including PM Modi in the months leading up to & during India's general elections. Our in-depth story for @WIRED on the use of AI this election season. https://www.wired.com/...
The scale and frequency of AI calls have considerably increased during this general election campaign @WIRED spoke to half a dozen companies across India working on millions of dollars' worth of deepfake campaigns https://www.wired.com/... [image]
“Delightfully deceiving voters doesn't excuse the deception” I talked to @NilChristopher for this great deep-dive into the realities of and the people behind... 50 million + AI-clone voice calls and more... in Indian politics. https://www.wired.com/...
New research from @Eko_Movement & @indiacivilwatch reveals that Meta approved ads promoting hate speech, disinformation, and religious violence during India's election. These findings are deeply concerning, especially in the context of a recent TTP report...https://www.theguardia…
Meta is becoming a magnet for bad actors. Supremacists, racists and autocrats rely on Meta's hyper-targeted ads to spread vile hate speech, and push violent conspiracy theories - and Meta will gladly take their money, no questions asked.
India Civil Watch Intl reveals how Zuckerberg's Meta approved Modi's political advertisements that were “created based upon real hate speech & disinformation prevalent in India... to amplify existing harmful narratives”. Both low despicable creatures! https://www.theguardian.com/…
We reiterate our calls on @Meta to urgently stop the proliferation of disinformation and hate speech during India's election. Meta must take proactive measures to enforce India's political advertising “silence period” and curb the flood of election-related disinformation.