In a campaign headquarters in Seoul, a band of young and up-to-date collaborators use artificial intelligence to attempt the impossible: to make a sixty-year-old politician cool.

Using several hours of footage of the opposition People Power (PPP) candidate, the geek team created a digital avatar of Yoon Suk-yeol and unleashed "AI Yoon" into the arena of the electoral campaign for the presidential election of March 9.

Deepfake, the digital technology that creates hyper-realistic simulations of real people, had already made inroads into digital campaigns.

But the creators of "AI Yoon" believe he's the first official deepfake avatar of a contestant, a concept that's hitting the bull's eye in South Korea, the country with the world's fastest average internet speed.

Carefully combed hair, wearing an elegant costume, the avatar looks like the South Korean candidate.

But he employs a little more caustic language, with phrases calibrated to go viral in order to attract young voters.

Success is on the way.

AI Yoon has generated millions of views since its launch on January 1.

Tens of millions of people have questioned him, often with questions that are unusual in politics.

“President Moon Jae-in and (ruling party candidate) Lee Jae-myung are drowning. Which one do you save?” a netizen asked AI Yoon.

"I wish them both good luck," the avatar replied.

At first glance, AI Yoon could pass for a real candidate, demonstrating the progress made in recent years by videos from artificial intelligence.

Flesh-and-blood contestant Yoon recorded more than 3,000 sentences, or twenty hours of audio and video, to provide enough data to a South Korean deepfake tech company tasked with creating the avatar.

"The words spoken most often by Yoon are better reproduced in AI Yoon," said Baik Kyeong-hoon, the AI ​​Yoon team manager.

What the avatar says is written by the campaign team, not the candidate himself.

Opposition party presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol during a press conference on January 24, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea Ahn Young-joon POOL/AFP

"We try to find funny and satirical answers," Baik told AFP.

The strategy has paid off.

AI Yoon's statements made headlines in South Korean media, and seven million people took to the "Wiki Yoon" site to ask about the avatar.

"If we had produced only politically correct statements, we would not have had these reactions," said Mr. Baik.

“The political establishment has been too slow in the face of a rapidly changing society,” he adds.

Humor and sarcasm

When answering questions from netizens, AI Yoon dubs President Moon and his dolphin Lee “Moon Ding Dong” and “Lee Ding Dong.”

"I want to ask Moon Ding Dong this question: Who is our real enemy?" AI Yoon said in a thinly veiled attack on what his critics call the president's more conciliatory approach to Pyongyang.

The incumbent president has met with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un four times during his tenure, a diplomatic strategy Mr Yoon considers too soft.

Baik Kyeong-hoon, director of the "AI Yoon" team, shows a video clip with the digital avatar of presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, on February 7, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-je AFP

The avatar also used humor to try to distract from his candidate Yoon's past scandals, saying for example that he received fruit as a gift from a construction company when he was a prosecutor.

"I'm not beholden to persimmons and melons. I'm only beholden to the people," AI Yoon said, although the real candidate had to admit later that he had accepted some gifts.

The type of language used by AI Yoon is inspired by that in vogue in the world of online games, explains Kim Myuhng-joo, professor of information security at Seoul Women's University.

“AI Yoon reads the scripts compiled by its creators, who speak candidly,” Kim pointed out.

Team member Ko Sam-seog of opponent Lee Jae-myung accuses the cyber-candidate of "lowering the political level".

But the sarcasm works: Even though polls give the two neck and neck favorites for the March 9 election, Mr Yoon has taken a slight lead over his rival among voters under 30.

South Korea's election watchdog allows candidate avatars provided they are identified as deepfake technology and do not spread misinformation.

There are many misinformation fears about deepfake technology.

But Baik thinks artificial intelligence is the future of election campaigns.

"It's so easy to create massive amounts of content with deepfake technology," he told AFP.

"It is inevitable that it will be used more and more."

© 2022 AFP