What happened
AI-generated videos impersonating news anchors and politicians, alongside voice cloning and AI-generated messaging, are now central to India's election campaigns. Political parties deploy these tools in local dialects to reach millions of voters quickly and at significantly lower cost. Fact-checkers like BOOM reported that 219 of their 1,067 fact-checks in 2025, or 20.5%, involved AI-generated content, more than doubling 2024's share, highlighting a structural shift in misinformation production ahead of crucial state assembly elections.
Why it matters
Electoral integrity faces significant new risks as AI tools enable the mass production of convincing, fabricated political narratives. Platform engineers face increased difficulty in distinguishing authentic content from AI-generated material, requiring effective detection and content provenance systems to identify deepfakes and voice clones. Campaign strategists gain expanded reach across diverse constituencies and cost efficiencies through AI-driven localisation, but risk undermining public trust and voter perception as the line between authentic and synthetic content dissolves.
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