A Russian propaganda network is promoting a manipulated video that uses AI to make actors resemble President Biden and former President Trump in a bid to undermine the 2024 US election.
Key details of the AI-manipulated video: The video, titled “Bye, Bye Biden,” has been viewed over 5 million times on X and portrays Biden as senile and unfit for office using AI-generated audio and video manipulation:
- The video features Moscow-based actors made to resemble Biden and Trump using inconsistent deepfake editing, according to AI experts who analyzed the footage.
- Scenes depict Biden wearing a diaper, being pushed in a wheelchair, and giving money to migrants while denying US citizens, as well as references to stolen election conspiracies.
- The video mimics the style of a real Russian band, Little Big, whose lead singer’s face also appears to be deepfaked in the video.
Kremlin-affiliated network behind the video’s spread: The “Bye, Bye Biden” video has been heavily promoted by a Russian disinformation network known as Doppelganger, which has ties to the Kremlin:
- Doppelganger posted about the video nearly 4,000 times on X in 13 languages using a network of around 25,000 accounts, helping it garner over 6.5 million shares.
- Prominent accounts sharing the video included Russian Market, operated by a Swiss influencer known for pro-Russia content, and Tara Reade, who defected to Russia after accusing Biden of sexual assault.
- The video was also manipulated to avoid online detection by trimming it at arbitrary points to create technically distinct versions.
Growing use of AI in Russian disinformation campaigns: The promotion of the “Bye, Bye Biden” video highlights an increasing willingness by Russia to leverage emerging AI technologies to interfere in the upcoming US election:
- A report from Recorded Future revealed another Kremlin-linked campaign, CopyCop, using generative AI to push pro-Trump content across a network of over 1,000 fake websites.
- CopyCop used AI to scrape and repurpose news content with a right-wing bias, create fake journalist profiles, and disseminate narratives about Biden’s age and errors, Trump’s polling lead, and the criminal case against Trump.
- While the direct impact of CopyCop remains unclear, experts believe it demonstrates how AI can supercharge disinformation and may be a precursor to deepfakes amplified by established pro-Russian influencers.
Broader implications for AI’s role in election interference: As the 2024 US presidential election approaches, the use of AI-manipulated media by Russian propaganda networks raises serious concerns about the potential impact on voters and democracy:
- The “Bye, Bye Biden” video and CopyCop campaign showcase Russia’s evolving tactics in leveraging AI to create and spread disinformation at an unprecedented scale and speed.
- While the effectiveness of these early efforts remains to be seen, the ambiguity and believability of AI-generated content poses new challenges for social media platforms and abuse-detection systems.
- As generative AI continues to advance and become more accessible, it is likely that Russia and other foreign actors will increasingly incorporate these technologies into their election interference playbooks, making it harder to distinguish between real and fake information online.
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