The Liberal Democratic Party showed the participants of the SPIEF a pilot version of the Zhirinovsky neural network. Reportage

On the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a presentation of the Zhirinovsky neural network announced in April took place today. Artificial intelligence, which its creators call the “digital student” of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, has so far studied only 10 hours of speeches by the late founder of the Liberal Democratic Party, but already speaks in his voice, copies facial expressions and jokes about the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov. It is not yet possible for Russians to communicate directly with the country’s first political algorithm, but they promise to broadcast its forecasts on the radio every Friday.

In anticipation of the start of the presentation, a noticeable enthusiasm reigned in the hall: the guests were eager to find out what the digital copy of the long-term leader of the Liberal Democratic Party would be like. “I heard out of the corner of my ear what happened to him (Vladimir Zhirinovsky.— “b”) it will even be possible to communicate,” one guest shared with her neighbor. But the host of the presentation, the journalist of Komsomolskaya Pravda Alexei Ivanov, destroyed the expectations of the audience, overgrown with mysticism: “This is not a seance and not digital Vladimir Zhirinovsky. This is a digital student of Zhirinovsky.”

Recallthe launch of the project to create the Zhirinovsky neural network – “the world’s first political algorithm” – was announced by the Liberal Democratic Party on April 6, 2023, on the first anniversary of of death party founder. Then the new chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky, said that the neural network was planned to be created on the basis of more than 18 thousand hours of interviews and speeches by Mr. Zhirinovsky over more than 30 years, as well as 50 volumes of his writings.

“I must say right away: this is not Zhirinovsky. No one will be able to create Zhirinovsky and be the second Zhirinovsky now and in the future,” Mr. Slutsky warned those gathered in the hall.

But the digital algorithm, according to him, will constantly evolve and become more and more like the real Vladimir Zhirinovsky every month. State Duma deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party and curator of the algorithm Vladimir Koshelev told the audience that the creation of a neural network that would think and formulate in the same way as Vladimir Zhirinovsky is a very difficult process. In terms of severity, the deputy compared this development with nuclear energy, which is both a breakthrough and a huge danger to humanity. Therefore, Mr. Koshelev promised that the Duma faction of the Liberal Democratic Party, based on its experience, will prepare a bill on the regulation and strict regulation of artificial intelligence.

Stanislav Ashmanov, CEO of Nanosemantics (the company is helping the Liberal Democratic Party in developing the algorithm), said that it was important for the developers of the neural network to include in the algorithm not only the content of the politician’s speech, but also his intonation and emotions. They managed to imitate the voice of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, but so far the “newborn” artificial intelligence has been trained only on 10 hours of the politician’s recordings, so he is prone to flaws, Mr. Ashmanov honestly warned.

After the speeches of the speakers, the most interesting part of the presentation began: the lights went out in the hall, and a robotic monochrome bust of Vladimir Zhirinovsky appeared on the big screen.

His eyes and mouth shone, and his movements were very similar to the facial expressions of the deceased politician. Communication with the “digital student of Zhirinovsky” took place in the following format: the presenter asked him a question through the remote control, he took ten seconds to think, after which he gave an answer that the founder of the Liberal Democratic Party could give. For example, in response to the question: “What do you think of Gennady Zyuganov?” algorithm characteristically criticized the leader of the Communist Party for empty promises. And when he heard the question: “What should we do with Ukraine?”, As expected, he advised “stop feeding this country, close the borders and forget about it,” adding that Ukraine is “a political swamp full of traitors and Russophobes.”

When those gathered in the hall were also allowed to ask a question, a Kommersant correspondent asked Zhirinovsky whether he plans to run for president in 2024. But it was not possible to catch artificial intelligence on political inexperience: the digital politician replied that all decisions on his participation in the elections would be made in accordance with the political situation and the interests of the Liberal Democratic Party.

In responses to other political topics, the “digital student” also demonstrated childish diplomacy. For example, when asked who would be the next president of the United States, he replied that the American people would make their own choice and should not interfere in their affairs.

And to an even more provocative question – who will be the next president of Russia? – the algorithm said that it is too early to make predictions, but he is sure that the Russian people will make the right choice in favor of a worthy leader.

The career of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, according to Zhirinovsky, is waiting for a “complete failure” and ending “in the toilet of history”, and the special operation in Ukraine will continue “until the peace and security of the Russian people are fully restored.” Finally, to two requests to tell a joke, the algorithm responded with jokes about Gennady Zyuganov, and the second (“Zyuganov and Zhirinovsky compete to see which of them is better silent for ten minutes. Zyuganov starts – he sits silently. And Zhirinovsky looks at him and says: “Well, show me, Zyuganov, what can you do “”) even caused laughter in the audience.

There were a lot of questions to the digital politician at the audience, his answers caused genuine delight and a flurry of applause. And after the algorithm answered the question of what to do with the traitors to the motherland (“Traitors must be judged, punished to the fullest extent of the law. These vile creatures who sold their homeland and their fellow citizens must be held accountable for their traitorous actions, there is no place for traitors in our country, they deserve only contempt and punishment!”) in the hall there was even a voice: “How alive!”

At the end of the presentation, all the participants were interested in where else it would be possible to communicate with the political neural network. So far, according to its creators, it will be closed: communication with the digital Zhirinovsky will be available only on Fridays live on the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station. But as they learn, artificial intelligence will begin to help party members work for the good of the country and the people, the Liberal Democrats assured.

Elena Rozhkova