AI Yoon Seok-yeol and Plus Friend Lee Jae-myung... Political Sphere's 'Digital Presidential Election' Kicks Off

The appearance of AI Yoon Seok-yeol in the pledge platform of Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate [Photo by 'WikiYoon' capture]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] Ahead of the 20th presidential election, a new landscape of election campaigns is unfolding in the political arena. The focus has shifted from traditional face-to-face campaigns to online-centered content planning that actively utilizes various digital technologies and platforms.

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, delivered a handwritten letter to voters through a YouTube video on the 26th of last month. The video showed Lee writing the letter and included his voice reading it.

In the video, Lee emphasized, "The only reason I am in politics is for the people’s livelihood," adding, "I will do my best to overcome the COVID-19 crisis first and ensure that both the livelihood and economy fully recover."

Kim Young-hee, head of the Democratic Party’s campaign communication office, explained the intention, saying, "We thought that replacing the distribution of about 2.3 million preliminary promotional materials with videos would be suitable for the digital environment and environmentally friendly."

Lee also released short videos on YouTube presenting his presidential pledges. Notably, the video on the rural basic income pledge was titled "For the Green Countryside," and the video explaining the fair growth pledge was titled "What is Transformative Fair Growth by a Top Tutor?" to enhance citizens’ accessibility to the pledges.

Additionally, Lee launched the application "Lee Jae-myung Plus," allowing the public to communicate directly with his campaign and propose policies. It is reported that over 2,000 proposals were submitted through this platform within a week.

Yoon Seok-youl, the People Power Party candidate, is also actively using video content such as "AI Yoon Seok-youl" and "59-second videos."

AI Yoon Seok-youl is an artificial intelligence character with the same appearance and voice as candidate Yoon, programmed to answer various questions from the public on behalf of the People Power Party campaign headquarters.

The People Power Party stated, "AI Yoon Seok-youl has created a national fandom by responding to both critical comments and questions with humor and wit," adding, "The 'Yoon Seok-youl Pledge Wiki' platform, including AI Yoon Seok-youl, is creating a fresh and enjoyable festival-like election that has not been seen in previous elections."

They are also releasing short videos daily that explain the People Power Party’s pledges within 59 seconds. Furthermore, on YouTube, they have a series of video content under the signboard "Seok-youl’s Eatery," which features a small eatery concept where they directly listen to citizens’ stories.

As street campaigns have been curtailed due to COVID-19, opportunities to hear ordinary citizens’ voices have decreased, so a separate YouTube corner was created to listen to citizens’ stories.

This content featured a 27-year-old youth who stayed overnight in his car to save on rent and a YouTuber named "8Kogi-ne," who lives in the countryside with eight Welsh Corgis.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.