Vlad the imposter

Moment stunned Putin meets AI 'deepfake'... who wants to know if Kremlin despot uses rumoured body doubles

- Mark Reynolds

VLADIMIR Putin was left speechless when he came face-to-face with an artificial intelligence "deepfake" of himself which asked if he used body doubles.

A student from Saint Petersburg State University, who constructed the visual and audio likeness, asked the real Kremlin chief, 71, to share his thoughts on the dangers of AI.

To laughter from the Moscow audience yesterday, the double said: "Vladimir Vladimirovich, hello...I would like to ask you, is it true that you have many doppelgangers?" The student then added: "How do you view the dangers that artificial intelligence and neural networks bring into our lives?" It prompted a rare hesitation from Putin, whose eyes widened when he saw the digital body double flash up on screen.