This incident resurfaced past speculations, particularly in Western media, regarding Putin’s potential use of body doubles in certain public appearances, purportedly due to alleged health concerns.

Moscow: The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, appeared briefly lost for words on Thursday when confronted with an AI-generated version of himself. A video of Putin’s interaction with his ‘double’ has now been shared widely on social media. The “double” took the opportunity to put a question to Putin about the dangers of AI. “Hello, I am a student at St Petersburg state university. I want to ask, is it true you have a lot of doubles?” the double asked, prompting laughter among the audience. “And also: How do you view the dangers that artificial intelligence and neural networks bring into our lives?”

The unexpected query prompted a rare moment of hesitation from Putin, who was already in the midst of a lengthy Q&A session lasting several hours. After a pause, Putin responded with his trademark assurance, stating, “I see you may resemble me and speak with my voice. But I have thought about it and decided that only one person must be like me and speak with my voice, and that will be me,” he said.

“That is my first double, by the way,” the Russian President added.

‼️🇷🇺 🤣 A student from St. Petersburg asked Vladimir #Putin a question about neural networks. It turned out to be fun.

This is my first double, by the way…” Putin said #Russia pic.twitter.com/6MyvvSFmdj

— Maimunka News (@MaimunkaNews) December 14, 2023

This incident resurfaced past speculations, particularly in Western media, regarding Putin’s potential use of body doubles in certain public appearances, purportedly due to alleged health concerns. However, the Kremlin has repeatedly refuted these claims, asserting the president’s excellent health.

The longtime Russian leader has called for Russia to rival “biased” Western chatbots with its own technology. On Thursday he said it is “impossible to stop” AI, adding: “That means that we should lead in it.”

Putin has repeatedly called for Moscow to end its dependence on Western technology and has ordered his government to pour funding into developing supercomputers and AI research.