- Oct 17, 2011
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Though governments have increasingly turned to artificial intelligence in the past year to spread messages more widely and credibly, the takedown is unusual because the Western intelligence agencies traced it to an officer of the Russian FSB intelligence force and to a former senior editor at state-controlled publication RT, formerly called Russia Today, as explained in court filings.
In a strikingly detailed joint advisory, agencies in the United States, Netherlands and Canada identified various software programs used to manage the network, including one named Meliorator, which created fictitious users known as “souls” in various countries.
“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.”
X complied with a court order to furnish information on the accounts to the FBI, then deleted them.
But many other systems are operating already, and they will get better as they adapt for what is getting detected and what is getting by, Scott-Railton said. “This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “This is the drip of the iceberg.”
In a strikingly detailed joint advisory, agencies in the United States, Netherlands and Canada identified various software programs used to manage the network, including one named Meliorator, which created fictitious users known as “souls” in various countries.
“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.”
X complied with a court order to furnish information on the accounts to the FBI, then deleted them.
But many other systems are operating already, and they will get better as they adapt for what is getting detected and what is getting by, Scott-Railton said. “This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “This is the drip of the iceberg.”
