USRussian bot farm targets US midterms with AI fakes, views spike to 200,000 in an hour

A Russian state-backed disinformation operation is using AI-generated videos to attack Democratic candidates in the US midterms.

Kyiv Post, citing a Bloomberg investigation published Oct 18, said the operation known as Matryoshka made deepfakes mimicking actors and fake ABC and CBS broadcasts aimed at candidates in 20 Senate and 29 governor races. Bloomberg reviewed 130 fabricated videos and doctored front pages spread between Sept 10 and Oct 9.

Data from researchers at Antibot4Navalny showed view counts jumping to 200,000 within an hour before flatlining, driven by dormant bot accounts.