October 12 poll: When Biya's campaign employs AI!.

Given the impact Artificial Intelligence, AI, recently played in elections in countries as diverse as Namibia, South Africa and France, for example, the Biya fledging campaign apparatus has joined the fray to create content.

A typical instance which has caught the attention of Le Figaro, France's oldest authoritative daily newspaper, founded in 1846, is a campaign video on President's X [formerly Twitter] account posted on Saturday, September 27, 2025.

The conservative newspaper, which has predicted President Biya's victory, analysed the 30-second video as follows: "We have built a free, sovereign, and united nation with tangible achievements," declares a robotic male voice, as shots of the Cameroonian coastline and the iconic "I Love My Country Cameroon" monument at the PM’s roundabout in Yaounde.

The segment seems classic at first glance, except for the over-enunciated voice, which over-enunciates each syllable and sounds like it came straight out of a TV commercial.

Suddenly, a first image, clearly generated by AI, appears: a man and a woman in orange vests and construction helmets debate in front of a map, while an excavator works behind them to spread the tarmac on a newly constructed road.

"Our efforts are thwarted by multiple challenges," the voice continues, while the video shows a new artificial image of a terrified woman and child hugging each other against a backdrop of burned-out cars and armed men.

"Thanks to the experience of one man and the sacrifices of Cameroonians, we have been able to preserve what is essential," the voice reassures.

Paul Biya appears, signing a document that appears to trigger the intervention of the Cameroonian armed forces to rescue the woman and child with the help of a helicopter.

The President's campaign video is punctuated by other bizarre, sometimes incomprehensible, AI shots, such as one of a wall partially collapsing onto a computer, or another of the same woman appearing alternately in front of an agricultural greenhouse, alongside scientists, and then waving the Cameroonian flag before a large gathering.

“Maintaining peace and unity, providing sustainable opportunities for our youth, strengthening the socio-economic inclusion of women, and ensuring their protection remains our commitment,” the voice concludes.

The rapid succession of drone images and AI-generated shots ends with a lion walking in the Savannah, then a photo of Paul Biya smiling, in a blue suit, accompanied by the slogan "Greatness and Hope", La Fegaro concluded its analysis.

As The Guardian Post has reported in the past, President Biya has not hidden his attachment to the social media, where even before the electorate was convened, used it regularly to call on Cameroonians to be peaceful, patriotic, "live together" and vote freely.

During the launch of the South West Regional campaigns in Buea, last week, Prof Elvis Ngolle Ngolle, Director of the CPDM Academy, divulged that the social media was one of its platforms for the presidential campaigns.

Artificial Intelligence is a groundbreaking technology. A research by Cameron McKay, a security expert, who formerly worked on intelligence and foreign policy with Canada’s federal government, and Inga Trauthig a research professor at Florida International University, said he found out AI is "beneficial for the advancement of democracy”. 

"In the modern political environment, our collective online interconnectedness now presents an irreplaceable opportunity to shape the potential voting patterns of billions around the world who rely on the digital space to educate themselves and others on key political issues," they write.

But the researchers point out the risks.  In countries like "France, Namibia, South Africa and Taiwan, for instance, AI was used to create content designed to misguide voters, defame candidates or prop up unrealistic images of political parties," they point out.

Despite the disadvantages, AI is transforming various social, educational, industrial and developmental processes around the world. As other researchers have noted, it is "a powerful new layer in existing influence operations, with the potential to outpace rules and regulations if not managed appropriately".

For a country like Cameroon where fake news, misinformation, hate speeches and outright falsehood are common in the social media, government needs to protect electoral integrity, so that the gullible electorate are not manipulated by make-believe videos, pictures and audio designed to get votes.

The Guardian Post is delighted that during the Board meeting of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, on Tuesday, the Chairperson of the Board, Dr Enow Abrams Ebge, disclosed that its staff will be drilled at a training programme in partnership with the Association of African Election Authorities, on leadership and Artificial Intelligence.

The Guardian Post hopes the skills acquired will help them to identify AI manipulations that can temper with the electoral process.

We do not, nonetheless, subscribe to Le Figaro's analysis of President Biya's video that incorporating Artificial Intelligence bits in his campaign video could be misleading. 

Instead, we urge other contestants to make use of the technology with transparency, so as to get their messages to targeted audiences at little cost, for the electorate to make an informed choice on October 12, 2025.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3583 of Friday October 03, 2025