AI-generated Putin asks Putin about his rumoured body doubles – video

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, appeared briefly lost for words on Thursday when confronted with an AI-generated deepfake of himself.

The question prompted a rare hesitation from Putin, already in his fourth hour of taking questions at the marathon event.

"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," he said.

"That is my first double, by the way," Putin added as an afterthought.

There has been recurrent speculation, particularly in Western media, that Putin has one or more body doubles to cover for him in some public appearances because of alleged health problems. The Kremlin had denied that and said the president's health is excellent.

Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark Trevelyan Editing by Gareth Jones

Gork,

Putin cares a lot about his public image. He makes sure he is portrayed in a certain way on all media across Russia.

Deepfakes will be seen by him as being a real threat to his carefully curated persona.

Gradually_Adjusting,
@Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world avatar

Send in the clowns

Darkncoldbard,

They’re already here…

spiderkle,

That’s just scripted TV with pre-approved questions. The challenge was: how to show he has absolutely no body-doubles whatsoever and can take a humerous jab from a spontaneous caller.

volvoxvsmarla,

Honestly there were so many provoking questions that seemed like it had to have slipped through the vetting process that I am starting to think that this was vetted.

If the whole country knows you’re a delusional liar and that media is staged propaganda, putting off a show with provocative questions that seem real might be a good move to reconnect with the citizens and appear able to take criticism and as if you don’t live in an ivory tower.

But that assumes that Putin is playing some kind of 5D chess. Could be that, or it could be what it looked like - just a president being asked uncomfortable questions.

cosmicrookie,
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

I’d have a lot more provocative questions than that, if I were Russian

Aatube,
Aatube avatar

But you aren’t Russian and don’t know their conditioning, if any

volvoxvsmarla,

But that’s exactly the point. They were provocative, but not too extreme. Believable to cause a shock and a belief of honesty, of intruders, but not as provocative as they could have gotten.

dependencyinjection,

Surely there is no way this dude would get connected to Putin without being vetted first. So I would assume Putin wanted this interaction for some reason?

Chainweasel,

Makes him look easy going because he can take the pre-approved “jab”, and gives him the opportunity to deny the existence of any body doubles without it being a “who asked?” Situation.
There’s probably a situation where Putin plans to use a body double in the near future and he wants to preemptively “answer” the question before anyone else brings it up.

cosmicrookie, (edited )
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

The caller did not identify by name… Ha ha ha… 🤮 🧐🤔🙄🙄

Aatube,
Aatube avatar

It’s clear why such an asker would want anonymity

cosmicrookie,
@cosmicrookie@lemmy.world avatar

Come on… The joke is that he’d call himself Putin… But it’s clearly a staged and scripted joke

Aatube,
Aatube avatar

The joke seems to be “Ooh this caller was anonymous, who could know why?”

How is it clearly scripted?

Aatube,
Aatube avatar

To play “devil’s advocate”, it could’ve been live and somebody felt it was funny and let it skip through

lingh0e,

Sassy Justice warned us…

Supervisor194, (edited )
@Supervisor194@lemmy.world avatar

I find it difficult to believe he didn’t know this was possible. It’s far more likely that it’s not even slightly shocking to him that it’s possible.

What’s shocking to him, I think, is that it appeared in this feed.

Nevermind who made it - though if they get found out, I’d imagine they’re window-fodder for sure. In reality, the people who facilitated this whole setup should be concerned. In his mind, this had no place being here, it wasn’t funny in the slightest, and there will be hell to pay.

intensely_human,

Life is so weird

uphillbothways,
uphillbothways avatar

Pretty sure ol Pooty was just telling that caller in and anyone involved that they're about to fall out a window or spend some quality time in a labor camp.
That look, those facial gymnastics, those words. He was pissed.
Hope they get away with it. Fuck that asshole.

Icalasari,

I hope they not only get away with it, but manage to spread a bunch of deepfake videos to fuck with Putin

Synthead,

That thing he does with his eyes. I think that look is what is making all that tea taste funny.

Kidplayer_666,

Probably one of the few times I’ve seen him actually caught off guard (publicly)

Hyperreality,

You don't know that. This might be a double of Putin which was caught out by AI Putin, rather than actual Putin being caught out by AI Putin.

_dev_null,
@_dev_null@lemmy.zxcvn.xyz avatar

Come on, man, now you’re clowning.

Its one of many parallel AI Putins trained on a body double Putin, the latter of which was an understudy for one of the longest time double Putins.

They’re not fucking around.

Hyperreality,

Maybe the AI Putin was the real Putin disguised by software to make him look like AI, and this is a warning to the double of Putin who replaced the real Putin in a coup ten years ago.

teft,
@teft@startrek.website avatar

Putin the human has never existed. It has always been an AI double.

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