The key facts
- Spain's opposition People's Party distributed an AI video featuring digital doubles of Begoña Gómez and other Socialists ahead of the November 29 elections
- The clip garnered nearly two million views; minister Óscar López accused the opposition of spreading false information
- Former Socialist spokesperson Leire Díez filed a complaint against the People's Party for slander and unlawful use of her digital likeness
AI video featuring the prime minister's wife sparks political scandal
A political scandal has erupted in Spain after the release of a video featuring AI-generated images of the wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and other members of the ruling Socialist Party. According to The Guardian, the recording was distributed by the opposition People's Party ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for November 29. In the footage, digital doubles of the head of government's wife Begoña Gómez, former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and other well-known figures allegedly confess to various wrongdoing: in particular, the virtual Gómez describes obtaining a university position thanks to her husband's influence. The real individuals involved in the related investigations deny any unlawful actions.
Reaction of the authorities and the opposition
The video garnered nearly two million views and provoked outrage from the ruling party. Spain's Minister of Digital Transformation Óscar López accused the opposition of spreading false information and noted that viewers unfamiliar with artificial intelligence technologies might mistake what happens in the video for reality. One of the women featured in the video, former Socialist spokesperson Leire Díez, filed a complaint against the People's Party, accusing it of slander and unlawful use of her digital likeness. The opposition rejected the accusations, calling the video political satire and pointing out that it carries a label indicating the use of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, as Life.ru notes citing experts, such technologies are capable of misleading voters.
Context: elections against the backdrop of a housing crisis
Snap parliamentary elections are scheduled for November 29 after a prolonged political crisis. According to Life.ru, on October 5 Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the dissolution of parliament amid the failure of the government's initiatives to combat the housing crisis: lawmakers rejected proposals for additional tenant protections, and discontent over housing costs had already erupted into mass protests by that point. The scandal surrounding the AI video is unfolding right in the middle of the election campaign and touches on the issue of deepfake regulation: the dispute over whether an AI label is sufficient directly bears on how the parties will campaign until November 29. No final assessment of the video — political satire or disinformation — has yet been made by either the courts or regulators, and Leire Díez's complaint could become one of the first precedents concerning the digital likenesses of politicians in Spain.
