A Pro-Russia Disinformation Campaign Is Using Free AI Tools to Fuel a ‘Content Explosion’ | WIRED
Consumer-grade AI tools have supercharged Russian-aligned disinformation as pictures, videos, QR codes, and fake websites have proliferated.
wired.com
markdown
A new report reveals that a Russia-aligned disinformation operation—variously dubbed Operation Overload, Matryoshka, or Storm-1679—has been using free, consumer-grade AI tools since 2023 to churn out a “content explosion.” Between July 2023 and June 2024 they produced 230 unique pieces of fake pictures, videos, QR codes and websites; in the past eight months that shot up to 587. Video output jumped from 150 to 367, most featuring AI-voice cloning or image generation (notably via Flux AI), to push pro-Russian narratives around Ukraine, global elections and immigration.
What’s especially worrying is the campaign’s sheer scale and variety—impersonating media outlets, twisting real experts’ footage, layering multimedia, and going multilingual. The fakes have flooded 600+ Telegram channels and bot armies on X, Bluesky and even TikTok (3 million views before takedowns). Researchers say it marks a shift to faster, more scalable propaganda, leveraging easy-access AI to sow division in democracies worldwide.
Top comments (0)