Spanish Opposition's Deepfake Ad Targeting Prime Minister's Wife Draws Outrage Ahead of Election

A political advert from Spain's main opposition party that relied on deepfake technology to imitate the prime minister's wife has caused an uproar and opened a wider discussion about artificial intelligence as the country heads toward general elections next month. The conservative People's Party (PP) released the video this week on its social media channels. It used AI to manipulate the likenesses of several people connected to Pedro Sánchez's Socialist party, and seemed to show them confessing to things such as soliciting prostitutes and accepting kickbacks.

In one segment, an AI-generated Begoña Gómez, Sánchez's wife, talks about getting a university post because of her husband's job. A deepfake of former Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero speaks of hiding jewellery in a safe. Both references point to ongoing investigations, and both Gómez and Zapatero have denied wrongdoing.

By Friday the video had gathered nearly 2m views, and the Socialists responded quickly. Digital transformation minister Óscar López told broadcaster TVE: 'It's telling people a colossal lie, and for a party to do it on its official accounts seems intolerable to me.' He noted that the AI label appeared at the bottom of the clip in tiny, nearly transparent text, and warned that people unfamiliar with AI could easily mistake it for reality.

Also on Friday, Leire Díez, a former Socialist party member whose likeness was used, filed a court complaint against the PP and asked that the advert be removed immediately. She reportedly accused the party of defamation and digital identity theft, since the video used her image to allude to accusations that she worked to undermine the judiciary and law enforcement to benefit the Socialists.

Legal opinion appears to favour the PP. Most of the nine legal experts consulted by El País agreed the video was not illegal, because it was labelled as AI-generated and had a satirical tone.