In a bizarre use of new technology that has been likened to playing with dolls, gay Republican Virginia lieutenant governor candidate John Reid debated an AI version of his opponent, state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D).

An over 40-minute video posted to Reid’s YouTube channel has him standing behind a podium “debating” what his campaign claims is an AI version of Hashmi that was trained on her policy with a robotic approximation of her voice. The Reid campaign claims that he did not see the questions in advance. The “debate” moderator was also a computer program and opened the debate by insulting Hashmi, calling her the “Democrat candidate” instead of the Democratic candidate.

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Reid’s campaign said that they had to resort to an AI debate because Hashmi repeatedly refused to debate Reid. Lieutenant governor of Virginia is described by the Washington Post as “a largely ceremonial role” and there was no lieutenant governor debate in 2021. The position is elected independently of the governor.

“John Reid’s failed use of deepfakes is a desperate move straight out of Donald Trump’s playbook,” Hasmi’s campaign said in a statement. “While we appreciate that AI Ghazala did share her vision like her commitment to public education and reproductive rights — it’s pretty clear, Reid only cares about shoddy gimmicks and not governing. Maybe he should focus on voters instead of videos. And hasn’t he gotten in enough trouble online already?”

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The last line is a reference to allegations that Reid had a Tumblr account that shared white supremacist and neo-Nazi adult content. Reid denies any connection to the account.

Now the state Democratic party is claiming victory and says they “congratulate” Hashmi for “winning John Reid’s fake debate.” They shared screenshots of some of what they believed were good answers from AI Hashmi.

Randolph-Macon College political science professor Richard Meagher told the Washington Post that, while an AI debate could be a format used by “some unscrupulous” future campaign, the fact that Reid was very clear about what was going on here means that this isn’t a problem when it comes to political misinformation.

“I don’t want to get into pearl-clutching. Reid is very clear about what he’s doing here,” Meagher said. “There’s a kind of silliness to it, and any attention to a campaign could be good. … It could portray him as an underdog. It could also portray that this guy’s a joke.”

Hashmi currently leads by one point, 44% to 43%, according to a Virginia Commonwealth University poll released this week.

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