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FEDS SHUT DOWN RUSSIAN AI 'BOT FARM' THAT SPREAD DISINFORMATION FOR PUTIN


THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT NAILED A RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION BOT FARM POWERED BY
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: THEY TOOK DOWN TWO WEBSITES AND DISRUPTED NEARLY 1,000
BOTS.

Michael Loria
USA TODAY


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Federal prosecutors ripped down hundreds of artificial intelligence-generated
phony social media accounts used by Russian operatives to create a "bot farm"
that spread lies and pro-Vladimir Putin disinformation in the United States and
abroad, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.

Many of the electronically-created bots, complete with pictures of smiling
clean-cut people, purported to be Americans with names such as "Sue Williamson"
and "Ricardo Abbott" who were supposedly taking to social media sites such as X,
formerly Twitter, to extoll on Putin's generosity and virtues.

Disinformation experts and U.S. officials heralded the crackdown as the first of
its kind against state-sponsored AI-powered propaganda. It comes at a critical
point in Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion and ahead of the U.S.
presidential election in November.



“Today’s actions represent a first,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Russia
intended to use this bot farm to disseminate AI-generated foreign
disinformation, scaling their work with the assistance of AI to undermine our
partners in Ukraine and influence geopolitical narratives favorable to the
Russian government.”

Russia’s Federal Security Service – the successors of the KGB – orchestrated the
operation from 2022 through 2024, U.S. court documents say. They created nearly
1,000 X accounts and two websites, according to federal court filings.



U.S. Cyber Command and partners from the Netherlands and Canada joined the FBI
in taking down the Russian operation.

The Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to requests
for comment.

The FBI, acting on warrants issued by a federal judge, seized the X accounts and
the websites after suspicions were raised about international money laundering
and conspiracy, according to affidavits filed in the District of Arizona, where
the websites were registered.



X suspended the 968 accounts for violating terms of service. The company could
not be reached for comment.


RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA DETAILED

The bots posted everything from misleading information to outright lies.

One user, dubbed Sue Williamson, posted videos undermining the Ukrainian
military by saying the number of foreign fighters in its ranks was much lower
than was estimated, according to court documents. The user also posted videos of
Putin justifying the invasion.



The American personas were created using AI-powered software that only works on
X, although analysts expect it will be modified to work on other social media
platforms, according to a cybersecurity advisory from the FBI and its partners.

The software uses a small number of inputs to create accounts that can create
and share content in line with designated preferences.

The accounts were registered to email domains paid for in Bitcoin, the filings
say. Investigators traced the accounts back to Moscow through the series of
email addresses provided in case the Russian agents forgot the password to the
bot accounts.

Putin was trending among the AI-generated Americans.

Ricardo Abbott, a fictitious Minneapolis resident, shared videos of the Russian
president arguing Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine were part of Russia, the filings
say.

Another bot shared videos of Putin justifying the invasion with a candidate for
federal office, the affidavit says.



The videos are the same propaganda found on Russia’s state-run RT News Network,
according to court filings; and the bot farm scheme was conceived of by a former
RT editor looking for ways to reach audiences outside of RT’s broadcast viewers.

Fact Check:Bugatti debunks false claim about car purchase by Zelenskyy's wife


EXPERT CALLS THE OPERATION ‘HEARTENING’

Dietram Scheufele is a professor of science communication at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison who studies misinformation. 

The number of bots taken offline by the FBI operation is small compared to the
myriad fake accounts on social media, he said. But he felt encouraged that the
feds were going after the roots of AI-generated misinformation instead of
flagging doctored videos.

“I feel heartened,” the German native said. “We’ve seen tons of activities that
are putting bandages on symptoms but haven’t really addressed the root cause –
removing the tumor.”



The AI-generated accounts reached users who aren't reading mainstream
fact-checking stories, he said. So to address the issue, authorities had to shut
down the operations altogether.

AI bot schemes are cheap to create and maintain, Scheufele said, so Americans
should expect to see more Putin-loving fake profiles.





But Scheufele was encouraged that the FBI was going after state-sponsored
AI-generated misinformation, which he called the most pernicious type of
propaganda for its scale and goal of sowing discord in American communities.

“The unmanageable and unwieldy problem is foreign actors,” he said. “Now we’re
seeing the first pushback.”







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