This past Tuesday, a debate was held between the two candidates for Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor position, Republican John Reid and Democrat Ghazala Hashmi.
The debate - which can be seen on Reid’s YouTube page - comes with a twist: Reid is the only person at the podium.
This is because it is, in fact, an AI creation. Reid is standing at the podium in-person while an AI moderator governs the debate. Senator Hashmi is also the product of AI, with her AI persona being portrayed on a screen opposite of Reid.
Dr. Cayce Myers - the director of graduate studies for Virginia Tech’s School of Communication - told 10 News that it’s difficult to define this as a true “debate”, saying that an AI persona isn’t a substitute for a live human being.
“To say that there is a debate there, certainly there is a debate between ideas, but it’s not necessarily a debate between two candidates,” Dr. Myers said.
Reid spoke with 10 News over Zoom and explained that he had asked Senator Hashmi for an in-person debate on multiple occasions before ultimately deciding to go with the AI format.
“After the governor’s debate, after the attorney general debate, I finally said look, she can make up her own mind, but I’m going to host a debate,” Reid said. “We’ll use real quotes from her, nothing fake, nothing made up.”
Reid says that, to keep things fair, Senator Hashmi’s responses were generated from direct quotes from her website, among other sources.
“That [the website] was one of the reference points, with direct quotes,” Reid said. “If you watch the debate, they are all cited where they came from, whether it’s from her website or whether it’s from one of her interviews that she has done.”
When 10 News reached out to Senator Hashmi’s campaign for a response, spokesperson Ava Pitruzzello responded with the following statement:
“John Reid’s failed use of deepfakes is a desperate move straight out of Donald Trump’s playbook. While we appreciate that AI Ghazala did share her vision, like her commitment to public education and reproductive rights — it’s pretty clear, Reid only cares about shoddy gimmicks and not governing. Maybe he should focus on voters instead of videos. And hasn’t he gotten in enough trouble online already?”
Reid responded to the statement by saying that he could’ve had his team go in a different direction regarding the AI persona, but chose not to.
“I could’ve told the guy, hey, make this the most outlandish crazy thing she has ever said, and let’s just beat up on her. I didn’t want to do that,” Reid said. “I wouldn’t have thought that was fair, and I don’t like it when people make up lies about me, so I wasn’t going to do that about her.”
Myers, meanwhile, says that it remains to be seen whether or not this format will be used in the future. He does believe that AI usage in politics can generate the attention and votes that a candidate needs.
“The absurdity is what makes it go viral, and people that are offended by it or that like it, they share it, and it gets a lot of attention and it gets a lot of residence and attraction in the voting population,” Myers said.
Myers also told 10 News that, in regard to political campaigning, he believes that AI would be used more frequently to create advertisements thanks to AI’s higher quality outputs and low cost.