Mendel
Senior Member.
Excerpts:
Article: A network of Russia-based websites masquerading as local American newspapers is pumping out fake stories as part of an AI-powered operation that is increasingly targeting the US election, a BBC investigation can reveal.
The operation investigated by BBC Verify uses artificial intelligence to generate thousands of news articles, posted to dozens of sites with names meant to sound quintessentially American – Houston Post, Chicago Crier, Boston Times, DC Weekly and others. Some use the names of real newspapers that went out of business years or decades ago.
Most of the stories on these sites are not outright fakes. Instead, they are based on real news stories from other sites apparently rewritten by artificial intelligence software.
In some instances, instructions to the AI engines were visible on the finished stories, such as: "Please rewrite this article taking a conservative stance".
The stories are attributed to hundreds of fake journalists with made-up names and in some cases, profile pictures taken from elsewhere on the internet.
The sheer number of stories - thousands each week - along with their repetition across different websites, indicates that the process of posting AI-generated content is automated. Casual browsers could easily come away with the impression that the sites are thriving sources of legitimate news about politics and hot-button social issues.
However, interspersed within this tsunami of content is the real meat of the operation - fake stories aimed increasingly at American audiences.
To further bolster the credibility of the fake stories, operatives create YouTube videos, often featuring people who claim to be "whistleblowers" or "independent journalists".
In some cases the videos are narrated by actors – in others it appears they are AI-generated voices.
Several of the videos appear to be shot against a similar-looking background, further suggesting a co-ordinated effort to spread fake news stories.
The videos aren't themselves meant to go viral, and have very few views on YouTube. Instead, the videos are quoted as "sources" and cited in text stories on the fake newspaper websites.
One of the key people involved in the operation is John Mark Dougan, a former US Marine who worked as a police officer in Florida and Maine in the 2000s.
Mr Dougan later set up a website designed to collect leaked information about his former employer, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
In a harbinger of his activities in Russia, Mr Dougan's site published authentic information including the home addresses of police officers, alongside fake stories and rumours. The FBI raided his apartment in 2016, at which point he fled to Moscow.
The operation that Dougan is involved in has increasingly shifted its focus from stories about the war in Ukraine to stories about American and British politics.
Mr Watts said that the volume of content being posted and the increasing sophistication of Russia-based efforts could potentially pose a significant problem in the run-up to November's election.
"They're not getting mass distribution every single time," he said, but noted that several attempts made each week could lead to false narratives taking hold in the "information ocean" of a major election campaign.
"It can have an outsized impact", and stories from the network can take off very quickly, he said.
And Mr Dougan hinted at even bigger plans when asked whether increased attention on his activities would slow the spread of his false stories.
"Don't worry," he said, "the game is being upped."
