Yoon Suk-yeol presidential deepfake candidacy prompts concerns

Occurred: February 2022

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A campaign by South Korean politician Yoon Suk-yeol to become the world's first 'deepfake candidate' to win a presidential election raised concerns that it painted an inaccurate picture of his real character.

'AI Yoon''s team turned to avatars and short-form videos to explain policy ideas and lampoon his rival in a bid to win over younger voters.

However, some voters have complained that it is an inaccurate physical representation and paints an untrue political picture of Yoon. Others have pointed out the potential for misuse of deepfakes in the form of misinformation and disinformation.

AFP says South Korea's election monitor allowed AI candidates to campaign on the condition deepfake technology is clearly identified, and does not spread misinformation.

A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA suggests that real humans can easily fall for deepfake faces and tend to interpret them as more trustworthy than the real thing.

Deepfake

Deepfakes (a portmanteau of 'deep learning' and 'fake') are images, videos, or audio which are edited or generated using artificial intelligence tools, and which may depict real or non-existent people. They are a type of synthetic media.

Source: Wikipedia ๐Ÿ”—

System ๐Ÿค–

Operator: People Power Party
Developer: People Power Party; DeepBrain AI
Country: South Korea
Sector: Politics
Purpose: Communicate with young voters
Technology: Deepfake; Machine learning
Issue: Accuracy/reliability; Mis/disinformation

Research, advocacy ๐Ÿงฎ

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Type: Issue
Published: March 2022