Venezuela, China, Biden and “aliens”: artificial intelligence in the service of disinformation

“How true is it that Venezuela is such a poor country?” asks a blond anchor in English in a report on the Venezuelan crisis. But he is neither a journalist nor a man: he is an avatar created intelligence artificialincreasingly being used for disinformation.

Subtitles from the fictitious news program “House of News Español”, favoring the ruling Chavismo and questioned by the verification services, appeared as advertisements on social networks and caused controversy in this country.

This is not the only case.

Already another fake publication, Wolf News, used this type of technology to broadcast propaganda videos that, according to an investigation by specialist company Graphika in February, were linked to Chinese state-linked figures.

A rigged video in which the President of the United States, Joe Bidenwarned about the “threat” of “alien nature” in February flooded social networks and instant messengers.

And last year, he launched a montage of Ukrainian ruler Volodymyr Zelensky inhaling cocaine, as well as Eminem rapping against Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador.

According to AFP’s digital checks, everything was done with the help of AI.

“More and more regions are starting to see ‘deep fakes’ and AI-generated audiovisual content as a threat,” Shirin Anlen, a media technologist at the NGO Witness, told AFP.

“Kicked out immediately”

Avatars in the “House of News” videos are created by the creation program using intelligence artificial Synthesis. The company reported an account that exposed them to YouTube that removed that content.

“If you pretend to be a journalist, you pretend to report the news, you will be banned,” Laura Morelli, a spokeswoman for Synthesia, told AFP, who, without mentioning the user, said he “violated” their “terms and policies.” ” and “was immediately installed and expelled”.

News House hosts Noah, blonde, and Darren, black, are part of the Synthesia catalog of 93 avatars. The same goes for Wolf News, hosted by Alex and Jason.

Synthesia was also used in January to create videos of alleged Americans supporting the coup in Burkina Faso.

Morelli, however, guarantees that such abuse of the platform is an exception.

These programs “can be used by anyone with minimal knowledge,” warns Eduardo Mosqueira, Ph.D. in computer science and professor at the University of Coruña in Spain. He says it’s easy to determine if a video is fake, but it’s difficult to determine its origin. “If they were even a little bit careful, I suppose it’s impossible.”

“I am a robot”

Venezuelan state television station VTV played one of the House of News videos that reported a million-dollar profit from the Caribbean Series, an international winter baseball tournament that returned to the country after nine years.

“These are the numbers that this media releases in the United States and a large part of Latin America,” host Barry Cartaya said.

There are no official numbers.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is furious at any suggestion that the production is linked to his government.

“That’s not the one intelligence artificialThis intelligence popular,” the president said sharply at the end of February. “I’m a robot,” he continued ironically, imitating a metallic voice and imitating mechanized movements.

One Wolf News video criticizes US inaction in the face of armed violence. In another, he emphasizes the importance of “cooperation between the great powers,” China and the United States.

“For the first time, we are seeing a state-approved operation using video images generated by intelligence artificial to create misleading political content.” — Jack Stubbs, Vice President intelligence from Graphika, author of a study that linked the video to networks that sought to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.

repeated lies

Facebook parent company Meta is dismantling networks of fake accounts, including one in Cuba, that created unrealistic identities “to publish criticism of government opponents,” says Ben Nimmo, global leader Intelligence about threats from the firm, in a videoconference with AFP.

“Some of these accounts use profile pictures that were likely created using intelligence artificialthat is, photographs of people who do not exist,” he says. “This tactic is being used more and more.”

Mosqueira believes that “It’s getting easier to program social media bots that pretend to be real people and send the messages you want to get across to the public.”

The expert warns of the high impact of “deep fakes”, even when proven false.

“You already know the famous phrase attributed to (Nazi propagandist Joseph) Goebbels that a lie correctly repeated 1000 times becomes the truth.” (AFP)