As hopelessly inept and corrupt as the Russian military is, the one thing they're very good at and understand is propaganda. It's assumed that Putin employs many body doubles to perform tasks in public that he'd rather not do himself, for fear of assassination, etc. To counter this perception, Russia used an AI-generated "deep fake" in his end-of-the-year press conference, traditionally one of the most viewed of the year because it supposedly gives ordinary Russians a chance to speak directly with Putin.

Source: CNBC

Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked a question by what appeared to be an AI-generated “deep fake” of himself during a Q&A session with the public Thursday.

Putin held his annual phone-in with the Russian public, which was combined with his end-of-year press conference. It’s a closely followed event, but also a carefully orchestrated and curated affair, giving Russian citizens a chance to speak directly with the president on a range of issues.

“Mr President, good afternoon, I am a student studying at St Petersburg Institute. Do you have a lot of twins? And another point, what is your attitude towards the dangers with neural networks and artificial intelligence?” the AI questioner asked, according to a live NBC News translation.

The question was met with laughter from the watching crowd, and a brief pause from a stern-looking Putin.

“I see you may resemble me and speak with my voice. But I have thought about it and decided that only one person must be like me and speak with my voice, and that will be me,” Putin responded.

The Kremlin recently dismissed long-standing speculation in the press and on social media that Putin uses body doubles at some events. Meanwhile, there is growing concern across the globe about the use of AI “deep fakes” to spread misinformation.