BRASILIA/SAO PAULO — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is confined to house arrest after being convicted of attempting to undermine democracy, yet he still managed to show up at a major political event this past Saturday — at least in digital form.
An artificial intelligence-generated avatar of Bolsonaro appeared at the launch of his son Flavio’s presidential campaign, catching many in attendance off guard and immediately sparking debate about how AI could reshape Brazil’s October presidential race.
The digital version of the former president acknowledged its own artificial nature before delivering a message to the crowd: “No prison will silence the feeling of hope we have stirred,” the avatar declared. “It’s why I ask you to welcome with open arms the person I chose to replace me.”
The move was quickly challenged in court by leftist political parties and put a spotlight on a difficult situation facing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro’s campaign. His father remains wildly popular among Brazilian conservatives, but is legally prohibited from making public statements while under house arrest following his conviction for trying to reverse the results of the 2022 presidential election, which he lost to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula is now seeking a fourth non-consecutive term in office.
The incident is also drawing attention to a new frontier in the debate over AI in politics. While much of the conversation around artificial intelligence and elections has centered on deepfakes being used to spread false information, this situation raises a different concern: whether AI can be deployed as a substitute for a political figure who has been legally silenced.
Whether Saturday’s avatar appearance was a one-time moment or the beginning of a broader role for a virtual Bolsonaro on the campaign trail remains to be seen.
Opponents of the video argued it violated Brazilian electoral regulations because synthetic media depicting real people has the power to sway voters — and could potentially serve as a workaround for the judicial restrictions placed on Bolsonaro.
Marco Aurelio Mello, a former justice who previously led Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court, weighed in on the challenge of policing such technology. “The challenge with artificial intelligence is that it is virtually impossible to control,” he told Reuters.
A coalition of center-left and leftist parties filed a petition with the electoral court on Sunday, arguing that existing rules “ban synthetic content capable of reproducing real people to influence voter intent,” and pointing to the technology’s potential to manipulate public opinion.
However, the court’s presiding justice, Kassio Nunes Marques — who was appointed to the Supreme Court by Bolsonaro himself — stopped well short of condemning the video. “Using AI for campaigning is permissible, but what is forbidden is using it to harm someone,” he told the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. Nunes Marques noted he could not comment further on the specific case until it is formally reviewed by the court, and he did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The electoral court’s existing AI policy prohibits the use of fabricated or altered content in campaign materials when it is intended to spread false or misleading information that could compromise the fairness or integrity of an election.
Ivar Hartmann, an associate law professor at Insper in Sao Paulo, suggested that Jair Bolsonaro himself is unlikely to face any penalties, since he could argue he neither recorded the message nor gave prior approval for it to be shown. Local newspaper O Globo reported that Bolsonaro had not been told in advance that the video would be played at the event.
Hartmann noted the more complicated legal question is whether the video ran afoul of the court’s AI regulations — though the defense could argue those rules only apply to deceptive content that genuinely threatens electoral fairness, an interpretation that aligns with the remarks made by Nunes Marques.
Senator Bolsonaro’s campaign team has declined to comment on the AI video. According to O Globo, the campaign determined that clearly disclosing the video was AI-generated gave it sufficient legal standing for its use.
