The first AI election and a robo Edith Piaf

Artificial intelligence (AI) really is inserting itself into every sphere. Consider these two, very disparate recent developments:

** Argentina’s presidential election (Sunday, November 19) saw the candidates relying on AI-generated content for their campaigns. Both Sergio Massa, the governing party’s candidate, and radical libertarian Javier Milei didn’t use graphic designers and photographs to lob cheap shots and propaganda bombs at each other and to polish their own image. Instead, they relied on AI because it’s fast, cheap and fairly capable to execute basic jobs. The proliferation of AI content had The New York Times writing a piece that asked “Is Argentina the First A.I. Election?” (paywall). The report noted: “A.I. has made candidates say things they did not, and put them in famous movies and memes. It has created campaign posters, and triggered debates over whether real videos are actually real.”

** French singer Edith Piaf will be narrating the story of her own life and singing and talking in a new biopic , 60 years after her death. The robo Piaf comes about by using AI to generate her voice and image. The 90-minute film, which is in the early stages of production, reprises techniques used in Netflix’s The Andy Warhol Diaries. AI allowed Andy Warhol to narrate the film from beyond the grave.