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AI creates flutter among voters in Kerala poll campaign

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: AI-generated videos of football legend Lionel Messi have been circulating among Keralites for almost a year, making the format familiar to many. Yet in November, when K P Saleem from the Otukkungal panchayat in Malappuram used a fresh Messi video as part of his campaign strategy, it created a flutter among voters. By tapping into the regions massive football fan base, Saleem managed to score a political goal or two against his opponents. This election marks the first major political contest in Kerala after the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and parties are embracing the technology like never before. From digital avatars to content tailored for specific age groups and locations, tech-driven methods have become central to campaign strategies. However, the mainstay of local body elections remains the familiarity of the candidate and the personal one-to-one connection with voters. In the second phase of campaigning, parties continue door-to-door visits to reinforce this factor. Yet, digital marketing becomes a powerful complement. It is about setting the mood among voters. Social media now influences trends across different age groups, said Robin Alex Panicker, a tech entrepreneur closely tracking these developments. This election is unlike the one five years ago. Our digital behaviour has changed a lot. Young voters consume more content from reels on social media, so this trend naturally enters the election. Those who ignore the medium cannot reach these voters, he added. Most candidates now have some form of digital strategy, though the scale differs. There is demand to manage the entire digital campaign of a party or assist in placing advertisements targeted to specific geographic areas, explained Sham Mohammed, director of Storycat Creative Pvt Ltd. He noted that individual candidates often want their pictures transformed into videos with constituency locations as the backdrop. Pointing out new possibilities, Midhun Mohan, managing director of Green Ads Global, said, We can make a candidate read out a script to capture lip movements, expressions, and emotions, and then create a digital twin or AI avatar. With different prompts, we can generate multiple videos. The scalability is quite high. Similarly, Tinu Easo Cherian and Kiranraj V R, co-founders of Originative Nest, observed that AI advancements have overcome earlier shortcomings. We can now create longer videos in a cost-effective manner. Soon, we will be able to upgrade the resolution to match big-screen quality, they said. At the same time, the rapid spread of these tools has also raised concerns. In a bid to address this, the State Election Commission has formed expert panels to monitor and regulate AI-generated content during the local body elections, aiming to prevent misuse and ensure a fair process. Despite these concerns, experts believe AIs role in campaigns will only grow in the upcoming assembly elections. Messi magic International football players making announcement in Malayalam, driving KSRTC bus K P Saleem from the Otukkungal panchayat uses Lionel Messis digital twin to take a dig at Sports Minister V Abdurahiman Startups/digital marketing companies working with political parties to make personalised campaign materials Benefits of using AI Personalised voter outreach based on demographics and interests Efficient resource allocation for campaign events and ads Real-time feedback from public sentiment tracking Scalable communication across platforms and languages Data-driven decision making for strategy refinement AI tools used in elections Automated content generation for campaign messaging Facial and voice recognition in voter verification systems Chatbots for voter interaction and FAQs Predictive analytics to forecast voter behaviour Risks and ethical concerns Privacy violations from data harvesting Algorithmic bias affecting fairness Manipulative targeting of vulnerable groups Lack of transparency in AI-driven decisions Spread of misinformation via deep fakes or bots