With the help of AI, we created a new media channel where users could get acquainted with the content of TV Rain – Russia’s only independent TV-channel that was banned by the government. Now the only way to watch it is through paid subscriptions.

Russia’s media channels are subordinated to the government. They always present the news in the way that is beneficial to the government. They are completely “pro-Putin” and know how to brainwash people’s heads. There is a channel that is opposed to them; it is not financed by the government and doesn’t take instructions from anyone, so it can tell about things that are hushed up by the federal channels.

Obviously, the content, vocabulary and manner of news representation is very different. The worldview of a person who watches a different channel is different too.

The goal of the campaign was to increase awareness of the independent channel. It was also to reveal a deep mental problem of information environment as the crucial factor influencing people’s minds.

The idea is to illustrate the difference between worldviews formed by various media.

Two artificial intellects, like twins separated at birth, answer questions about Russia while having no background knowledge about the world. One brother was “brought up” by Russian state TV-channel, the other – by the country’s independent channel.

Now they answer questions using the information they had absorbed during the experiment. And when kids don’t know something, they start making things up, which is the most fascinating part of it.

The target audience - politically active people interested in obtaining true information. They actively use social networks. They are used to making choices, comparing and experimenting on their own.

That’s why they were offered to participate in an experiment that would show how a worldview is formed depending on the information environment.

Asking a question, a person becomes a participant of the experiment, because the result is unpredictable and it depends on how a question was asked. It provoked interaction between users and the AIs.

People were also eager to share the results of communication on social media, it led to many reactions and posts.

The answers provided by the neural networks fully illustrate the difference between the vocabulary and contents of a state and of an independent TV-channel. The audience had a chance to vote for the answers they liked most.

Using the website interface, everybody can ask a question to the AIs and get answers from them or read related answers. Also, one can vote for the system he/she likes more.

People were so eager to share the results of communication on social media, it led to many reactions and posts. Thus, participants of the experiment became social media channels on their own and spread information about the project.

The story rocketed around the Internet and media.

In one week

14 048 080 media impressions

193 427 visitors

93% voters favored TV Rain's AI