Consumer-grade AI tools have supercharged Russian-aligned disinformation as pictures, videos, QR codes, and fake websites have proliferated. A PRO-RUSSIA DISINFORMATION campaign is leveraging consumer artificial intelligence tools to fuel a “content explosion” focused on exacerbating existing tensions around global elections, Ukraine, and immigration, among other controversial issues, according to new research published last week. The campaign, known by many names including Operation Overload and Matryoshka (other researchers have also tied it to Storm-1679), has been operating since 2023 and has been aligned with the Russian government by multiple groups, including Microsoft and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The campaign disseminates false narratives by impersonating media outlets with the apparent aim of sowing division in democratic countries. While the campaign targets audiences around the world, including in the US, its main target has been Ukraine. Hundreds of AI-manipulated videos from the campaign have tried to fuel pro-Russian narratives (…) The researchers said the spike in content was driven by consumer-grade AI tools that are available for free online. This easy access helped fuel the campaign’s tactic of “content amalgamation,” where those running the operation were able to produce multiple pieces of content pushing the same story thanks to AI tools.(…) While it was difficult to identify all the tools the campaign operatives were using, the researchers were able to narrow down to one tool in particular: Flux AI. Flux AI is a text-to-image generator developed by Black Forest Labs, a German-based company founded by former employees of Stability AI. Using the SightEngine image analysis tool, the researchers found a 99 percent likelihood that a number of the fake images shared by the Overload campaign—some of which claimed to show Muslim migrants rioting and setting fires in Berlin and Paris—were created using image generation from Flux AI. MOST POPULAR BUSINESS OpenAI Leadership Responds to Meta Offers: ‘Someone Has Broken Into Our Home’ BY ZOË SCHIFFER TRENDS The AI Backlash Keeps Growing Stronger BY REECE ROGERS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Here Is Everyone Mark Zuckerberg Has Hired So Far for Meta’s ‘Superintelligence’ Team BY KYLIE ROBISON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Microsoft Says Its New AI System Diagnosed Patients 4 Times More Accurately Than Human Doctors BY WILL KNIGHT The researchers were then able to generate images that closely replicate the aesthetic of the published images using prompts that included discriminatory language—such as “angry Muslim men.” This highlights “how AI text-to-image models can be abused to promote racism and fuel anti-Muslim stereotypes,” the researchers wrote, adding that it raises “ethical concerns on how prompts work across different AI generation models.”
via wired: A Pro-Russia Disinformation Campaign Is Using Free AI Tools to Fuel a ‘Content Explosion’
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