Fake news generated by artificial intelligence shapes public opinion

Published 07.06.2024 | By Йосиф

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Fake news generated by artificial intelligence shapes public opinion

It was inevitable and only a matter of time, hybrid warfare already uses a new weapon of mass destruction, we call it generically – generative artificial intelligence (AI).

OpenAI has announced that it has stopped five covert political influence operations that used the company’s AI models to model public opinion on the Internet, writes dariknews.bg.

Those operations that OpenAI “killed” between 2023 and 2024 came from Russia, China, Iran and Israel. Their goal was manipulation of public opinion and influence on political results. And what happens to the far smaller and insignificant campaigns in different countries? For example in Bulgaria, where the volumes are not so much and it is possible to pass under OpenAI’s radar?

OpenAI’s report comes amid growing concerns about the impact of generative AI on the many political elections around the world (some 4 billion people will go to the polls this year in 65 countries) planned for this year, including the US and the European Union.

In its findings, OpenAI reveals how networks of people engaged in influence operations have used generative AI to generate text and images in much greater volumes than before, and fake engagement by using AI to generate fake comments on posts on social media.

OpenAI says the Russian operation, dubbed “Doppelganger,” used the company’s models to generate headlines, “mutate” news articles into Facebook posts and create comments in multiple languages to undermine support for Ukraine.

Another Russian group used OpenAI models to decode the code of a Telegram bot that posted short political comments on
English and Russian targeting Ukraine, Moldova, USA and the Baltic States.

Chinese network Spamouflage, known for its influence efforts on Facebook and Instagram, used OpenAI models to study social media activity and generate textual content in multiple languages across platforms.

Iran’s “International Virtual Media Union” also uses AI to generate content in multiple languages.

OpenAI’s report is similar to what other tech companies do from time to time. Last Wednesday, for example, Meta published its latest report on coordinated inauthentic behavior, which described how an Israeli marketing firm used fake Facebook accounts to run an influence campaign on the social network targeting people in the US and Canada.
Bozhidara Naydenova

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