Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro: ‘Artificial Intelligence’ Is Plotting a ‘Cyber-Fascist Coup’ Carlos Becerra/Getty Images

Socialist dictator of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro on Sunday accused “artificial intelligence” of plotting to oust his regime with the ultimate goal of “taking colonial control of humanity.”

Maduro made his wild accusations during his participation at the “World Congress of Anti-Fascist Youth and Students,” an anti-U.S., anti-Israel, and anti-capitalism weekend gathering of international far-left students hosted by the Venezuelan socialist regime in Caracas. Individuals from about 70 countries participated according to the Maduro regime.

The far-left event’s participants reportedly announced that they were “carrying out a great struggle against imperialism and fascism in Venezuela,” a country they claimed is “at peace and is working fully for a horizon of prosperity and happiness.”

Maduro, during one of the weekend event’s conferences, claimed to his listeners that the Western world has “perfected” artificial intelligence to wage a “cyber-fascist coup” against humanity.

“Through two technological tools that the West has perfected. One, first-generation artificial intelligence. They are already talking about going towards artificial superintelligence. And artificial intelligence has been fed for years with the data of every country, of every culture, of every society,” Maduro said. “And today artificial intelligence is leading the cognitive warfare, the cognitive massacre, the military warfare, the economic warfare.”

“I’m not exaggerating, guys. It is exactly like that. Through artificial intelligence technological imperialism is trying to impose a cyber-fascist coup on humanity to take colonial control of humanity,” he continued. “I’m not putting one word too many. Maybe I’m putting too little for the sake of synthesis in my intervention.” 

At another point during the weekend event, Maduro said that he would host a “great world anti-fascist festival” between January 8-10, where he will invite “thousands and thousands of leaders” to join him on January 10, the date he is slated to be sworn into an additional six-year term that he secured through the July 28 sham presidential election.

The dictator also expressed his intention to create an “anti-fascist training school” in Caracas, which would integrate “all the training methods” from the regimes of countries such as China, Russia, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Bolivia.

The socialist dictator, an aspiring TikTok “influencer,” claimed that social media is the “instrument … they use to implement their actions.”

Maduro himself has been an avid user of artificial intelligence tools. Both the dictator and his socialist regime’s media apparatus made public use of them in 2023.

Last year, Maduro introduced “Sira,” an artificial intelligence companion, in the debut of his ongoing weekly television show With Maduro Plus. The dictator’s show used the artificial assistant – which bore the likeness of a young, curly-haired woman with brown skin – in a segment of the multi-hour show that presented pro-regime news.

Weeks before the launch of Maduro’s show, several reports indicated that the Venezuelan socialists were utilizing artificial intelligence to generate “deepfake” news reports in English to push false pro-regime propaganda on social media. According to the reports, the videos were created using Synthesia, a London-based artificial intelligence company.

Venezuelan non-government organizations denounced at the time that the contents of the AI-generated false news reports, which reportedly began surfacing around February 2023, were then presented by Venezuelan state-media anchors in public television as if they came from a real outlet to promote a purported “positive” international image of the socialist regime.

One of the “deepfake” news anchors featured in the pro-Maduro regime false news bore the likeness of British actor Dan Dewhirst. Dewhirst told the tech outlet DigitalTrends in October that he “couldn’t believe” that his likeness was used in such a way.

“My stomach dropped. Everything I was worried about has happened, but a thousand times worse. I’m literally the face of fake news,” he said.

The British actor told the outlet that he signed a contract with Synthesia in 2021 for the use of his likeness, but became suspicious of the broad clauses in the contract, so he contacted his agent and Equity. Dewhirst said he and his lawyers unsuccessfully tried to have the terms of the contract changed. According to his statements, the company showed him the stipulations that the likeness could not be used for “illegal or unsavory purposes.”

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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