Rousing anthems, songs to put down rivals – Johor candidates turn to AI

Users say tech levels the playing field, but observers warn of its lack of authenticity

- Harith Mustaffa

Clad in their red Pakatan Harapan (PH) jackets, content creator Adib Aiman and two others sat over glasses of teh ais at a mamak diner in the Taman Pelangi Indah suburb, furiously scrolling and tapping away at their smartphones.

At first glance, the trio seemed to be taking a break from the campaign trail merely 100m away. Instead, the members of the PH social media team were feeding prompts into AI apps — churning out campaign videos, social media posts and songs attacking political rivals.

“It’s really fast and doesn’t cost much. Most of the tools are even free,” said Adib, who goes by the account JustAttack on TikTok and has generated hundreds of songs using the AI music generator Suno.

“In the past, we'd carry laptops, cameras and look for power sockets to charge our equipment. Now we just use our phones.”

The Johor state election - where 2.7 million voters head to the polls on July 3 - is becoming Malaysia’s biggest test bed yet for the use of generative AI in political campaigning. It has been used by campaigners to generate content ranging from campaign anthems to candidate theme songs, and also to plan rallies and craft social media posts.

While its backers said the technology has levelled the playing field, industry players and political observers warned of the lack of authenticity and warmth in AI-generated content.

The election also comes at a time when generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini have become faster and more accessible to almost anyone - leading parties to embrace it to produce campaign content and streamline operations.

AI ENTERS THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

On June 7, caretaker Menteri Besar Onn Hafiz Ghazi and Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders launched their campaign in Medini Educity, Iskandar Puteri. There, they unveiled a retro synth-pop anthem with rousing singalong lyrics, its video showing a montage of Johor’s development and BN lawmakers meeting residents.