{"id":1374,"date":"2026-05-29T22:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T22:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/2026\/05\/29\/not-the-finest-hour-bbc-slammed-over-churchill-and-gandhi-deepfakes-video\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T22:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T22:41:15","slug":"not-the-finest-hour-bbc-slammed-over-churchill-and-gandhi-deepfakes-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/?p=1374","title":{"rendered":"Not the finest hour: BBC slammed over Churchill and Gandhi deepfakes (VIDEO)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK\u2019s public broadcaster aired a Question Time segment featuring AI-generated historical figures<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

The BBC has been accused of producing \u201cAI slop\u201d<\/em> after an episode of Question Time featured AI-generated versions of World War II-era British leader Winston Churchill and Indian independence activist Mahatma Gandhi.<\/p>\n

The episode, which aired on Thursday, opened with host Fiona Bruce introducing AI-generated versions of Churchill and Gandhi, as well as women\u2019s suffrage campaigner Emmeline Pankhurst and Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be something, wouldn\u2019t it, if they really were on our panel. Of course they\u2019re not. They are AI-generated. Just a small insight into the use of technology,\u201d<\/em> Bruce said before introducing the actual panelists for a discussion on the rapid rise of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

\n

Tonight Question Time features an imagined AI panel made up of historical figures who shaped the modern world <\/p>\n

Watch the #bbcqt<\/a> AI special now on @BBCiPlayer<\/a> and @BBCNews<\/a> to see what our REAL panel have to say on AI, including how it can blur the lines between reality and fakery pic.twitter.com\/G1HVSUyt5t<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) May 28, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The segment was widely mocked online, with some users labeling it \u201cAI slop.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYour funding should be cut just based on this,\u201d<\/em> one user wrote on X, calling the BBC staff involved \u201ca plague to the film-making and television industry.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"General
BBC to slash budgets as viewers tune out<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cGenuinely a joke that I am forced to pay a fee for this dross,\u201d<\/em> another user wrote.<\/p>\n

The British broadcaster, which is largely funded through license fees paid by the public, is reportedly losing around $1.36 billion annually as audiences increasingly turn to streaming platforms and other formats.<\/p>\n

According to The Guardian, at least 314,000 households stopped paying the license fee last year. The BBC announced a 10% budget cut in February amid mounting controversies<\/a> over its reporting and declining<\/a> license-fee revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UK\u2019s public broadcaster aired a Question Time segment featuring AI-generated historical figures The BBC…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}