CPI(M) shares A.I. video of Kerala leader after opposing tech

Party’s official social media pages shared a video created with AI of late CM EK Nayanar exhorting cadres to strengthen the party ahead of the state conference.

Days after Kerala CPI(M) state secretary MV Govindan warned that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the industrial sector would lead to concentration of power and wealth in the hands of capitalists, his party’s official social media pages have allegedly shared a video created with the help of AI of late chief minister EK Nayanar exhorting cadres to strengthen the party ahead of the state conference next month.

The purported deepfake video showed Nayanar asking cadres in his trademark Kannur dialect to make collective efforts to enable the party to come to power for the third time in Kerala in next year’s elections. (HT photo)

The purported deepfake video showed Nayanar asking cadres in his trademark Kannur dialect to make collective efforts to enable the party to come to power for the third time in Kerala in next year’s elections.

Nayanar is the longest-served chief minister of Kerala, having remained in the post three times from 1980-81, 1987-91, and 1996-2001. The popular Communist leader from Kalliasseri, Kannur died due to kidney and heart failure at the age of 85 on May 19, 2004.

In the AI-generated video, Nayanar could allegedly be heard saying, “We should not succumb to those trying to cheat us. We should fight. We should strengthen the party. The party’s state conference gives people a lot of hope. You know that our state conference is taking place in March in Kollam. Let us all energise ourselves and stand with the party.”

The paradox is that the video comes in the backdrop of the party leadership’s criticism of the influence of AI in the job and industrial sectors. There has been no reaction from the party on the deepfake video.

At the Thrissur district conference on February 9, state secretary Govindan said: “With the use of AI, the profits of corporate capitalism will rise. Over 60% of the workforce would be affected by unemployment. If this trend expands globally and if the means of production remain controlled by large corporates and capitalists, the crisis will worsen.”