Deepfake Video Targets Spanish PM's Wife

Spain's main opposition party released a video this week that uses artificial intelligence to simulate people connected to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialist party. The footage appears to show them confessing to actions such as soliciting prostitutes and accepting kickbacks. By Friday, the clip had drawn nearly 2 million views on social media, raising concerns about how technology is used in the country's political campaign.

The video, created by the conservative People's Party, includes an AI-generated segment of Begoña Gómez, the prime minister's wife. In it, she talks about getting a university post because of her husband's job. It also features a simulated version of former Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero speaking about hiding jewellery in a safe. Both of these points refer to ongoing investigations, and both individuals have denied any wrongdoing.

The Socialists responded quickly to the video's release. Digital transformation minister Óscar López called the content a colossal lie and said it was intolerable for a party to post it on its official accounts. He also pointed out that the AI label was placed in tiny, nearly transparent text at the bottom of the clip, warning that people unfamiliar with this technology could easily mistake the video for reality. On Friday, Leire Díez, a former Socialist party member whose image appeared in the video, filed a court complaint against the People's Party, accusing it of defamation and digital identity theft.

The legality of the advert is being debated. Most legal experts consulted by the Spanish newspaper El País agreed that the video is not illegal, since it includes a label identifying it as AI-generated and has a satirical tone. Íñigo Navarro, a former dean of the law faculty at Madrid's Comillas Pontifical University, said that given the context, everyone knows those people did not say those things. However, José Javier Olivas, an associate professor at Spain's National University for Distance Education who studies AI biases, called it regrettable that a political party would use deepfakes. He said that putting words in other people's mouths qualifies as disinformation.

This is not the only place where AI is affecting political advertising. A report from a Wesleyan University research group identified more than 200 ads using AI ahead of next month's midterm elections in the United States, most of them tied to Republicans. Erika Franklin Fowler, a co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, said that much of the current use of AI in political ads carries no disclaimer. The People's Party has dismissed the criticism, saying everyone can see the video uses digital tools to highlight Socialist hypocrisy.

The video comes as Spain prepares for general elections scheduled for 29 November. The issue of AI-generated content is expected to remain a topic of discussion as the campaign continues in a deeply divided country. Most polls suggest the People's Party will win the election but will need support from the far-right Vox party to form a government.