The work showcases innovative ways of using AI for text to speech and voice cloning to make political speeches more inclusive.

The traditional Christmas address is held every year by the Federal President of Germany and is one of the most important political speeches throughout the year. In 2023 the Christmas address was held for the 100th time.

On 25 December 2023 at 7.10 pm, the speech by Germany’s Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was broadcast on national TV. Meanwhile, an AI recreated the recording with the 12 most commonly spoken languages in Germany.

First the wordings of the speech were translated before adapting them to the Federal President’s linguistic style and even matching his lip movement, in order to create the most realistic depiction possible. Shortly after the speech was over, the AI-generated results were made available on social media and linked to a microsite.

As the work itself is a translation, there is no audio that needs to be translated. Please refer to the English version of the fully translated Christmas address: https://awardserver.de/2024/open-to-diversity/

Germany is a multicultural and multilingual country – more than one in four citizens has a migrant background. More than half of them speak either no German or mainly another language at home. Their inclusion becomes a huge challenge as the country still lacks inclusiveness in many areas like political speeches for example. Open to Diversity, a non-profit democracy initiative from Germany, aimed to change that by making the annual Christmas address accessible to more people than ever before.

The campaign gave millions of people in Germany the opportunity to finally experience the Federal President in their native tongue. It even caught the attention of the Federal President's Office, kick-starting the conversation about official implementations in the future. But more importantly, it stressed the significance of diversity, especially in today’s challenging times.

Never before was AI used to make an important political speech accessible to millions of people, making the Christmas address the most inclusive one, ever. The quality of the AI-generated videos is unparalleled in terms of authenticity. Also, the work closed an important gap between the needs of Germany’s modern society and the reality found in politics, by using very little funds.