Thiruvananthapuram: Shortly after the Kerala Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) appeared to be in a dilemma over Artificial Intelligence (AI) regulations, top leaders of the state’s Congress unit attended a training session on AI techniques for electioneering on Monday ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.
The Kerala Congress said the 2026 state polls would mark the party’s maiden usage of AI in its campaign.
“Other parties have been using AI for a while. We were a bit slow to understand it. We got the right circumstances only now,” Babu Prasad B., Alappuzha District Congress Committee (DCC) president, told ThePrint.
Former chief minister and veteran Congress leader A.K. Antony had proposed the training, conducted Monday by Shastra Vedi, a pro-Congress science organisation.
M. Liju, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) general secretary in-charge (organisation), was the training coordinator.
The first training session was for the KPCC leaders and party district leaders at Indira Bhavan, the party headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram.
“Most people know how to use ChatGPT. We showed live demonstrations of a few specific things, such as deep research,” said Achuthsankar S., state president of Shastra Vedi, who conducted the training. Achuthsankar, the former head of the department and professor of bioinformatics at the University of Kerala, said deep research will allow leaders to do a comprehensive and quick analysis of any proposed laws or amendments to existing laws.
Achuthsankar further said that the Monday training mainly focused on creating party propaganda material, such as campaign videos, songs, cartoons, and blueprints of the Congress poll manifesto.
Achuthsankar, who has been actively involved in talks on AI across Kerala, said that he just fine-tuned training materials he already has for the time-constrained leaders.
“AI has immense scope, and all the attendees showed curiosity in participating in the discussions,” he said, adding that the session also led to creative discussions, irrespective of age, on the impact of facial recognition AI in a democracy, considering the recent studies on this issue, as well as exploring or reading minds.
He said the training focused on creating awareness and using AI to create propaganda materials.
“In the long run, when the government uses it for governance, there will be issues related to privacy or concerns over data misuse for political benefits,” he added.
The Congress’s training assumes significance in the state against the backdrop of some of the latest moves by the LDF.
In February, CPI(M) secretary M.V. Govindan said AI would lead to exploitation and job loss, a day after saying the technology could lead to socialism.
The CPI(M) draft political resolution, released in early February—ahead of the Party Congress meet in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai in April this year—advocated for AI regulations as the technology, ‘weaponised and used in wars’ across the world, posed a threat to privacy.
However, days after, the CPI(M) released an AI video of late CPI(M) chief minister E.K. Nayanar, in a video promoting the party’s 6-9 March Kollam state conference.
Liju told ThePrint the Congress leaders have welcomed the initiative, and the AI session Monday was successful. He said the KPCC planned to expand the training to more grassroots functionaries in the coming days.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
