An AI-generated version of S\u00e1nchez\u2019s wife, Bego\u00f1a G\u00f3mez, for example, speaks about receiving a university post<\/a> thanks to her husband\u2019s job, while a deepfake of the former Socialist president Jos\u00e9 Luis Rodr\u00edguez Zapatero speaks about hiding jewellery<\/a> in a safe. Both lines are nods to ongoing investigations in which G\u00f3mez and Zapatero have denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n A still from the People\u2019s party AI-generated video featuring a deepfake of Bego\u00f1a Gomez. Computer-generated: @ppopular\/X<\/p>\n The Socialist party was swift to respond to the video, which by Friday had racked up nearly 2m views. \u201cIt\u2019s telling people a colossal lie, and for a party to do it on its official accounts seems intolerable to me,\u201d \u00d3scar L\u00f3pez, Spain\u2019s digital transformation minister, told the broadcaster TVE<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n While the video noted at the bottom \u2013 in tiny, nearly transparent font \u2013 that it had been created with AI, L\u00f3pez pointed to the wider risk. \u201cIt\u2019s very easy for anyone who isn\u2019t used to AI to confuse that video with reality,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd call me crazy, but that seems extremely serious to me.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday, one of those whose likeness was used in the video filed a legal challenge against the PP, calling on the party to immediately take down the campaign advert. In a court complaint, Leire D\u00edez, a former Socialist party member, reportedly accused the PP of defamation and digital identity theft, after the video used her likeness to hint at accusations that she worked to undermine judicial and law enforcement in order to help the Socialists.<\/p>\n A majority of the nine legal experts consulted by the newspaper El Pa\u00eds<\/a> concurred that what the PP had done was not illegal, given that the video was labelled as AI-generated and that the overall tone was one of political satire. \u201cGiven the context, everyone knows those people didn\u2019t say those things,\u201d \u00cd\u00f1igo Navarro, a former dean of the faculty of law at Madrid\u2019s Comillas Pontifical University, told the paper.<\/p>\n But the legality of the video was just one aspect, said Juan Antonio Lascura\u00edn, a professor of criminal law at the Autonomous University of Madrid. \u201cIt\u2019s quite another matter to ask whether it\u2019s appropriate, exemplary or ethically and politically correct.\u201d<\/p>\n Many sought to contextualise the videos within the wider effort \u2013 under way by officials across much of the world \u2013 to crack down<\/a> on the impact of disinformation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s truly regrettable that the official account of a party that claims to want to govern and revitalise democracy is using AI-generated deepfakes in its campaign,\u201d said Jos\u00e9 Javier Olivas, an associate professor who researches populism, conspiracy theories and AI biases at Spain\u2019s National University for Distance Education.<\/p>\n He pointed to the wider backdrop of the election campaign, in which both mainstream parties have sought to rally voters by stoking emotions and attacking the morality of their rivals, but he said the video was a \u201cred line\u201d in terms of how campaigns normally unfolded.<\/p>\n
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