Imprisoned former Pakistani prime minister launches election campaign from prison using AI voice clone



Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan succeeded in running an online election campaign from prison by having outside collaborators transcribe his own manuscripts into audio using AI. At the same time, Pakistani regulators are believed to be disrupting election activities by blocking access to SNS such as X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.




Imran Khan deploys AI clone to campaign from behind bars in Pakistan | Imran Khan | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/18/imran-khan-deploys-ai-clone-to-campaign-from-behind-bars-in-pakistan

Mr. Khan, who founded the Pakistan Justice Movement in 1996 and became prime minister in 2018, was ousted in 2022 through a no-confidence vote in the cabinet, and was arrested on suspicion of corruption in May 2023. He has been in prison since August 5th, when he was found guilty in the first instance judgment.On August 29th, the High Court decided to suspend the effect of the first instance judgment, and although he was released on bail, he was unable to hold public office immediately after being released. He was arrested again on suspicion of violating the confidentiality law and has remained in custody ever since. In addition, Mr. Khan claims that the alleged violation of the Public Office Secrecy Act was ``fabricated to interfere with the general election scheduled for February.''

The AI voice was created by the Pakistan Justice Movement, and Mr. Khan sent a shorthand manuscript through his lawyer, and the text was transcribed into voice using a tool that creates a ``speech clone'' from an existing voice sample. . The audio was broadcast at the end of a five-hour livestream of speeches by Pakistan Justice Movement supporters.

Imran Khan's speech created using AI voice cloning technology - YouTube


Following the riots that erupted when Khan was arrested in May, Pakistani censors banned him from broadcasting, and for seven hours around the time of the broadcast, he appeared on X, Facebook, Instagram, Access to SNS such as YouTube has been restricted.




Despite access restrictions, the broadcast was watched by more than 4.5 million people. However, Saeed Muhammad Ashar, one of the viewers, said, ``(The speech) wasn't very persuasive and the grammar was strange.But I appreciate the effort.Frankly speaking, it was a real gathering and a real one. There is no substitute for that speech.'

While many analysts have warned about the potential for AI to be used by bad actors to impersonate leaders and spread disinformation, they are still unsure how it can be used to evade state repression. It is not talked about much, and it seems likely that various ways to use it will appear in the future.

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in Software,   Video, Posted by log1d_ts