Russia’s Liberal Democrats have presented the “digital apprentice” of Vladimir Zhirinovsky
FILE PHOTO: Presentation of Zhirinovsky neural network at SPIEF-2023 © Alexandr Kryazhev / Sputnik
The neural network based on fiery speeches, interviews, books and numerous controversial statements by late founder of Russia’s right-wing LDPR, who passed away in 2022 from Covid-19 complications, has made its public debut as a Telegram bot.
The idea of a Zhirinovsky chatbot was first announced on the anniversary of the politician’s death, and its first version was presented to the visitors of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum in June.
However, in order to further evolve and better predict what the political firebrand would have said about current events, the artificial intelligence must be trained on interactions with real people, said the curator of the project, Russian MP Vladimir Koshelev.
“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, ranging from “what will happen to Russia in 100 years” and “when the Ukraine conflict will end,” to “how to find a man” and “when LDPR finally win the 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 complications at the Central Clinical Hospital in Moscow.
Zhirinovsky was infamously known for his flamboyant political style, harsh statements and sometimes prophetic political predictions. He repeatedly got embroiled in numerous scandals during his long political career, routinely getting enraged during political debates, throwing swear words at and even brawling with his political opponents. The politician has repeatedly run for president, failing, however, to ever get more than 10% of votes.
