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The video has been viewed by 5 million users and shows how “doppelganger” propaganda networks can effectively spread deepfake videos.
According to a WIRED report, a Russian-backed disinformation network called “Doppelganger” spread anti-Biden videos on X, created with the help of generative AI.
The video, titled “Bye Bye Biden,” parodies US President Joe Biden and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, with actors playing the roles of the two 2024 presidential candidates and their facial features modified by AI.
“The video depicts Biden as a demented old man in a wheelchair, wearing diapers and unable to handle a bike. The video also portrays Biden as a corrupt politician and repeats false claims that votes were stolen from Trump in the 2020 election.”
The video reached 6.5 million users and was viewed by 5 million people, according to analysis by Russian researchers Antibot4Navalny, who tracked the campaign and found that since May 21, there had been 4,000 posts promoting the video using X's network of 25,000 accounts.
The group also found new methods to evade social media monitoring, allowing disinformation networks to trim and edit videos to promote videos that “technically differ by only milliseconds” and are “likely to be seen as different and unique by anti-abuse systems.”
True Media, a US non-profit that works to detect political deepfakes, declared with 100% confidence that the video was created with AI-generated audio and with 78% confidence that the video used AI facial manipulation, WIRED reported.
“As the Kremlin steps up its efforts to disrupt the U.S. elections in November, it's becoming increasingly clear that Russia is prepared to harness emerging AI technologies,” WIRED wrote, also pointing to previous reporting on the “CopyCop” campaign, which used AI tools to scrape information and data from real news sites, retooling it to promote a right-wing bias, and publishing it through a network of fake sites.
This series of reports further demonstrates the power of generative AI tools that can facilitate the creation of potentially persuasive and far-reaching deepfake propaganda and dangerous fake news.
In April, the Philippine government was forced to issue a warning about deepfake audio ordering military attacks, and earlier this year, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's election campaign used AI tools to create a cute, animated version of himself, which experts say played a key role in softening the military strongman's image.
The United States will hold a presidential election in November 2024. – Rav Ayag/Rappler.com
Rav Ayag is a technical and features intern at Rappler. He is a fourth-year student in the Bachelor of Fine Arts Creative Writing program at the Ateneo de Manila University.
This article was reviewed by reporters and editors.
