In today's #vatniksoup, I'll talk about the state of generative AI (GAI) today, and how it will affect propaganda & disinformation in the near future.The development of GAI right now is so fast, that it's very difficult to keep track of what's going on,but here's the latest.
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Generative AI is a technology capable of generating text, images, videos, or other data using generative models often in response to prompts. Some examples of GAI are platforms like Midjourney, DALL-E, ChatGPT and all those chatbots you find on every service desk these days.
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In the last two years, GAI platforms, especially those that generate images, have become much more powerful. For example below, you see a comparison between generated content with different versions of Midjourney: v1 was published in Feb 2022, and v6 came out in Dec 2023.
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In the context of the Russo-Ukrainian War, there have been multiple examples of GAI that's been produced as anti-Ukrainian propaganda.
Few weeks after the full-scale war started, a crude and badly made Zelenskyy deepfake surfaced on social media.
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There was also a big push to make Zelenskyy appear as a cocaine addict. This was done by cutting and pasting parts from his interviews, but there was also a video published which showed "white powder" on his workdesk. The video of course was a edited and fake.
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In Nov 2023, a deepfake video depicting then Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi made rounds on Telegram. In the fake video, he declared Zelenskyy as an "enemy of the state", and rallied people to "deploy their weapons and enter Kyiv".
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Another deepfake video was published in Feb 2024. In this video, deepfake audio of the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, claims that Joe Biden should "deal with real internal problems" and not "play with Putin, from whom he needs to learn how to work for national interests".
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Another, more recent example was published in Mar 2024, some time after the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack. This deepfake video was a composition of two interviews with Danilov and it used a deepfake audio that was then dubbed on the video.
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At the beginning of the war, when only a tiny amount of information and media was coming from the front lines, people shared a lot of video game content and videos from previous conflicts. This same phenomenon was evident after the 7th Oct terrorist attack.
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Deepfake content is also used to sway opinions at the election polls. In the 2023 Slovak parliamentary election, a deepfake audio was used to construct a phone call about "rigging the elections" and raising the cost of beer. The latter may have even swung the elections!
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GAI is also used to generate text. One such example is recently launched fake news blog London Crier. According to @eliothiggins, most of the content on this site is stolen from other sites & then re-written by AI,with occasional hand-written fake news thrown in the mix.
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Most of the examples above are crude and not very convincing. Next, let's look at what can be done today with state-of-the-art GAI technologies. For example, here's a GAI video produced with Sora AI, a GAI video platform created by OpenAI.
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Here's another example that was made by TikTok user @tech.bible. The AI used 30 seconds of both webcam and audio content to create this completely fake video. This is already pretty convincing, and it's just the start.
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Generative AI can also be used to create music. Here's a song titled "Diapers and Deception (Fuck Vladimir Putin)", an electronic deep house song with vocals that took me around 15 seconds to make. As you can hear, it's a banger and a certified summer hit.
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Below you see photorealistic examples made with the latest version of Midjourney AI (v6). I, for one, have hard time telling that these images were generated by AI. Many platforms are also figuring out how to overcome the challenging parts, like generating human hands.
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Deepfakes, robocalls, and other techniques are already used for nefarious purposes. For example, fake robocalls that impersonated Joe Biden were used to sway voters in New Hampshire, and a finance worker transferred 25 million USD after a tele call with a deepfake boss.
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To conclude, GAI is developing FAST, and it will change our attitude towards information & disinformation. In the near future, it will be extremely difficult to notice a difference between real and fake content. People will also have hard time believing in anything anymore.
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Finally, I would recommend everyone to follow @Shayan86 and @O_Rob1nson, as they do the best fact-checking and de-bunking when it comes to fake content.
In today’s Wumao Soup, I’ll introduce how and where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) online propaganda and influence operations work. Due to China’s massive population and advances in AI, CCP-aligned online content has become increasingly visible.
1/20
Like Russia’s troll farms, China has its own troll army: the “50 Cent Party” or “Wumao” refers to state-linked online commentators who are reportedly paid ¥0.50 per post to steer discussions away from criticism and amplify CCP narratives on social media.
2/20
Back in 2017, a research paper estimated that the Wumao produced almost 500 million fabricated comments annually to distract readers and shift topics. In that sense, Wumao operates very similarly to the Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” model:
In today’s Vatnik Soup and the “Degenerate Russia” series, I’ll show you the brutal reality of Russian war crimes, in particular the horrific tortures and sexual abuses of children, women and men.
Buckle up, this one is not for the faint-hearted.
1/24
For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeted at right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional,family values.
In the previous “degenerate Russia” series we discussed Russia’s insanely high divorce rates, rampant domestic violence, high murder rates, thriving neo-Nazi culture, corruption of the Orthodox Church, and their massive demographic problem:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explore how Russia is working with Iran, and how the recent Israel–US strikes on Iran could affect the war in Ukraine. Iran has been one of Russia’s key allies in their genocidal war, but in reality the partnership is deeply one-sided.
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Historically, Russia/USSR has been involved in numerous wars in the Middle East, invading Afghanistan for nearly a decade and desperately trying to keep Syria’s authoritarian leader, al-Assad, in power before his eventual downfall.
2/21
While initially supportive of Israel, the Soviet Union quickly pivoted to backing its enemies, fueling antisemitism, terrorism, and chaos in an already tense region. At times, this meant near-open war, like when Soviet Air Force MiG-21s were shot down by Israel over Egypt.
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll re-introduce a Latvian politician and former MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka. She’s best-known for her history in the Communist Party of Latvia, for her pro-Russian politics in the country, and her connections to Russian intelligence.
1/22
Based on Ždanoka’s speeches and social media posts, she has a deep hatred towards the people of Latvia. The reason for this can only be speculated, but part of it could be due to her paternal family being killed by the Latvian Auxiliary Police,…
2/22
…a paramilitary force supported by the Nazis, during the early 1940s. Ždanoka became politically active in the late 80s. She was one of the leaders of Interfront, a political party that supported Latvia remaining part of the USSR.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce the main themes of Russian disinformation on TikTok. Each day, there are thousands of new videos promoting pro-Kremlin narratives and propaganda.
It’s worth noting that Russians can only access European TikTok via VPN.
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There is currently a massive TikTok campaign aimed at promoting a positive image of Russia. The videos typically feature relatively attractive young women and focus on themes of nationalism and cultural heritage.
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Ironically, many of these videos from Moscow or St. Petersburg are deceptively edited to portray Ukraine in a false light — claiming there is no war and that international aid is being funneled to corrupt elites.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about Finland and how pro-Kremlin propagandists have become more active in the Finnish political space since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For the first time since 2022, they’ve gained some political power in Finland.
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Russia’s political strategy in countries with Russian-speaking minorities (such as Finland and the Baltics) is typically quite similar: it seeks to rally these minorities around issues like language and minority rights, and then frames the situation as oppression.
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At the same time, Russian speakers are extremely wary and skeptical of local media, and instead tend to follow Russian domestic outlets like Russia-1 and NTV, thereby reinforcing an almost impenetrable information bubble.