Desperate to make its mark in the electoral field after its decimation by Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee 13 years ago, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is taking the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make its presence felt in this year’s Lok Sabha campaign. It is rolling out Samata, an AI-generated presenter, to fight the electoral battle in which its main opponent will be Mamata Banerjee.
“Samata, meaning equality, will be used for disseminating campaign news and other matters of interest to the people,” CPI(M) leader Samik Lahiri, who is one of those looking after this newly launched project of the party, said.
The party also released a 27-second clip on social media featuring Samata, in which the presenter introduces herself as the AI-generated presenter for the CPIM’s social media handles like Facebook and YouTube.
“We are using artificial intelligence to bring out what the people want to say,” Lahiri said, adding that though Samata is currently speaking only in Bengali, she will soon be speaking in Hindi and English as well.”
Lahiri, a former MP and member of the CPI(M)’s central committee, said that newly launched Samata is already getting a very good response and reach. He expressed confidence that Samata would be a very helpful tool in campaigning for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “Our main goal in using artificial intelligence is to stick to reality. Not to spread fake news. We have seen BJP in the past in the national arena using artificial intelligence to distort information. Our aim is to not distort information. We are using this artificial intelligence to work for convenience. And that’s why we have decided to use AI in the elections this time around,” Lahiri added.
The party’s political opponents derided the CPIM’s initiative. Veteran BJP leader and former state president Tathagata Roy, said: “It is laughable that the CPIM is suddenly becoming so tech-savvy.
There was a time when the CPIM organised protests and dharnas to stop computerisation in banks and other institutions. If they think that Samata will help them get khomota (power), they are in for another rude shock.”
Samik Lahiri rubbished Roy’s claim. “This was a malicious campaign against us. The CPI(M) had never opposed computerisation,” he said. Stating: “We have always been for progress,” Lahiri said that at that time, his party had opposed large-scale lay-offs in some private sector banks in the name of computerisation.
The Trinamool Congress, too, criticised the CPIM for its “double-standards”. West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu said that the CPI(M) should apologise to the youths who were deprived of a good future owing to their policy on computerisation before making use of AI for their Lok Sabha campaign. “If they want to use AI, they should first apologise to those who have been deprived of a future for their policies over computerisation and automation,” Basu said.
Trinamool Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Shantanu Sen taunted the Left party about using AI. “This kind of talk does not suit the CPM. People who shut down computers. Who stopped studying English till class VI. Who called themselves a proletariat and smoked one beedi thrice to save money. Even children will laugh at them if they make such claims. The CPM has pushed Bengal backward in 34 years, so they are zero today. That Mamata Banerjee was there, it was possible to stage a turnaround into golden Bengal. Otherwise that would not have been possible,” Sen said.
CPIM members who were part of the technical team behind Samata said that the party’s digital wing had been using the AI anchor Samata experimentally for more than six months. “One of the major challenges we faced was to make the AI anchor fluent in Bengali. Basically, AI-generated characters are fluent in English, but face problems in other languages. We had to work overtime to overcome that.”
Stating that they are going about it very carefully in using AI, which enables computers and machines to simulate human intelligence and problem-solving capacities, Lahiri said: “It has been seen that AI can be used for good as well as bad purposes.” He drew a parallel, saying that a razor blade can be used for both shaving beard as well as for cutting the throat. Lahiri expressed satisfaction that Samata was getting good response from people and maintained that the party had launched Samata with the help of its own people having expertise in the field.
BJP leader Rahul Sinha said: “AI will not be able to help the CPM in any manner. No one used to look at their website earlier and will not look at it in future too. But CPM has pushed West Bengal behind by opposing technology. For this, they need to apologise to the people of Bengal first. Then do something else.”