by Frances Martel, Breitbart:
Russian strongman Vladimir Putin took a question from an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated version of himself in one of the more bizarre moments of his traditional year-end press conference on Thursday.
Putin typically holds a multi-hour event with regime-friendly media before the end of every year to advance his regime’s propaganda and allow the leader to define Russia’s political narratives for the upcoming year. Putin’s record currently stands at nearly five hours, but Thursday’s event lasted only a little more than four.
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Towards the end of the press conference, Putin took a question from an unnamed “student in St. Petersburg,” who appeared onscreen as Vladimir Putin. Russian television aired a side-by-side of the two Putins talking to each other.
According to Russian state media, AI Putin asked real-life Putin if the rumors that he used body doubles were true — if he had any “twins” — and asked for his thoughts on the potential dangers of artificial intelligence becoming a part of daily life. On the former question, Putin denied having any doubles but appeared to say he had considered hiring body doubles for security reasons.
“You look like me; you speak using my voice. But I’ve given it some thought and decided that there should be only one person who looks like me and uses my voice,” Putin said, according to state propaganda outlet RT. “And that person should be me.”
Putin reportedly claimed that the rumors of him having a body double began as a “joke by one of our political figures” and that the deepfake talking to him was his “first doppelganger.”
