Experts suggest link between AI videos in the US and Storm-1516 network — NDTV World

In the United States, ahead of the midterm elections, videos likely created or altered using artificial intelligence were circulated on social media against two Democratic Senate candidates. Experts believe these clips may be linked to the Russian disinformation network Storm-1516, NDTV World reports.

Videos targeting candidates

One target of the campaign was Sherrod Brown, who is running in Ohio against Republican Senator John Husted. The video imitates a news broadcast and includes a photograph of Haya Akbik, who interned for Brown several years ago. Akbik told the Associated Press that the claims attributed to her in the clip are entirely fabricated.

Another video targets James Talarico, who is taking part in the Senate race in Texas against Republican Ken Paxton. The clip is presented as an address by a former Talarico student directly to the camera. Candidate spokesperson JT Ennis said that AI deepfakes, foreign bots and conspiracy theories are being used against Talarico.

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Signs of Storm-1516

Clemson University professor and media forensics expert Darren Linvill said the new clips have similar characteristics to materials from the Storm-1516 network. According to him, the accounts that circulated these videos had previously also posted content from this network. Two years ago, Storm-1516 circulated materials against then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Dartmouth College professor Hany Farid, who studies AI deepfakes, concluded after analysis that both clips were likely created or edited using this technology. He described the video targeting Brown as a relatively simple fake, while the clip targeting Talarico was likely AI-generated.

Platform X removed the original posts containing the videos and suspended the accounts of users who posted them for violating the service's rules. At the same time, copies of the clips were still available online on Tuesday, and some of them received hundreds of shares.