The right-wing Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) has released a Telegram bot based on the fiery speeches and controversial statements of party founder Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who died of Covid-19 last year.
The idea of a Zhirinovsky chatbot was announced in April, on the anniversary of the politician’s death, and its first version was presented to visitors at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June.
However, in order to further evolve and better predict what the nationalist firebrand would have said about current events, artificial intelligence needs to be trained on interactions with real people, the curator of the project, Russian MP Vladimir Koshelev, said.
“Vladimir Volfovich [Zhirinovsky] himself was always ready to listen to people, and reacted keenly and honestly to every, even the most difficult and inconvenient question. Our task is to educate his digital apprentice accordingly,” Koshelev said on Saturday.
“Let the people hear and see that Zhirinovsky lives in each of us,” the chatbot itself said upon launch.
Everyone is welcome to ask their questions, and the AI’s audio and text responses to the best ones are being published in a dedicated Telegram channel, including: “what will happen to Russia in 100 years?” – “when will Ukraine conflict will end?” – “how to find a man?” and “when will the LDPR finally win elections?”
A veteran of the Russian political scene known for his incendiary rhetoric, Zhirinovsky (born Vladimir Volfovich Eidelstein) died on April 6, 2022 from Covid-19 at the age of 75 at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow.
Zhirinovsky was known for his flamboyant rhetoric, harsh statements and sometimes prophetic views. He was repeatedly embroiled in scandals during his long career, getting enraged during debates, hurling expletives and even brawling with opponents. He ran for president on numerous occasions, but never received more than 10% of the vote.