The U.S. Justice Department says it has disrupted a Russian government-backed propaganda campaign that relied on artificial intelligence to use a bot farm to spread disinformation.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has disrupted a Russian operation that used fake social media accounts enhanced with artificial intelligence to covertly spread pro-Kremlin messages in the United States and abroad, it said.
Tuesday's news comes four months before the U.S. presidential election, which security experts say will be subject to cyberattacks and covert attempts to influence social media by foreign adversaries. Senior U.S. officials have said publicly that they are monitoring the situation for possible plans to disrupt the vote.
The Justice Department has obtained court approval to seize two domain names and search nearly 1,000 social media accounts allegedly associated with the initiative.
“With these actions, the Department of Justice has disrupted a Russian government-backed, artificial intelligence-enabled propaganda campaign to use a bot farm to spread disinformation in the United States and abroad,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
According to Justice Department and FBI officials, Tuesday’s action marked the first time the United States has publicly accused a foreign government of using generative artificial intelligence in a foreign influence operation. U.S. officials have warned that adversaries may use the growing power of AI systems to ramp up efforts to spread disinformation.
Kremlin-funded effort
According to prosecutors, the alleged operation was set up through a Russia-based private intelligence organization staffed by Russian intelligence officers and a senior employee of the Moscow-based, government-funded news outlet Russia Today (RT). The initiative was approved and funded by the Kremlin in early 2023, according to the Justice Department.
Spokespeople for the Russian embassy in Washington and RT did not respond to requests for comment.
The private organization had designed a custom platform, powered by artificial intelligence, to create, monitor and manage hundreds of fake social media accounts intended to resemble those of real Americans, according to court documents.
Accounts on the social media platform X have since been blocked. They posted pro-Kremlin messages, including videos of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and criticised the Ukrainian government.
The United States cooperated with Dutch authorities in the investigation. The campaign was run from a server in the Netherlands, according to investigators.
