Why is Ukraine’s government using AI avatars?

Ukraine’s government will begin using artificial intelligence (AI)generated videos and avatars to inform citizens about social programmes and for public service announcements, the Ukrainian Ministry of Social Policy announced on Friday. 

The AI videos come as part of a partnership with the London-based AI video company Synthesia.

The company said that Ukraine’s resources are stretched due to Russia’s invasion but that the country still needs to provide citizens with information about support programmes, such as access to healthcare, pensions, social help for single mothers and how to take in a child under guardianship. 

Before the outbreak of the war in 2022, the country launched an app to create a governance system online called Diia. It provides citizens with a digital ID and allows them to register a business or obtain many other government services.

But the app added other features during the war such as the ability to file a claim if homes are damaged by Russian shelling, get evacuation assistance, and submit reports and videos of Russian troop movements.

The AI videos will not be used for the war but could help citizens residing in territories occupied by Russia, who may not have physical access to local social protection offices. 

“This is where the ability to submit applications for social assistance online becomes crucial,” a spokesperson for Synthesia told Euronews Next. 

The partnership with Synthesia will allow Ukraine to further its “educational and informational outreach during these challenging times and support people internally displaced by the war, people with disabilities, orphans, veterans, and pensioners,” said Kostiantyn Koshelenko, deputy minister of social policy of Ukraine for digital development, digital transformation, and digitalisation.

The AI videos have already been used to train social sector professionals across Ukraine, which the company said has saved time and resources for the Ministry of Social Policy, the company said. 

The AI avatars have also helped train social workers. In a trial held over the summer, the ministry replaced text-based communication with their 20,000 social workers with a series of short-form, AI videos.

The response to these videos was “very positive, as social workers found the video-based information more engaging and easier to digest rather than reading pages of text,” Synthesia said.