Propaganda outlet leverages AI to amplify content without any loss in persuasive power

A study of the use of AI by a Russian-backed propaganda outlet shows how AI allows propagandists to increase their production capacity without any loss in persuasive power. In December 2023, journalists at the BBC and Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub published an investigation revealing that the site DCWeekly.org was a Russian propaganda outlet, part of a broader network disseminating pro-Kremlin and anti-Ukrainian narratives.

Morgan Wack and colleagues found that prior to September 20, 2023, much of the content on the site was simply lifted from other right-leaning outlets. After that date, however, the stories were generally rewritten by AI, allowing the site to use a broader range of sources but with the tone and emphasis tweaked to better suit likely aims of the propagandists.

Published in PNAS Nexus, the authors examined 22,889 articles published on the site before and after the shift—but before the site’s true motives were exposed. By leveraging the timing of its adoption, the research team shows how AI allowed the propagandists behind the site to more than double their rate of publication, as compared to their most active pre-AI period. The use of AI by DCWeekly also corresponded with an increase in the breadth of topics covered on the site, which ranged from Russia’s purported successes in Ukraine to the tyranny of gun control legislation in the United States.

As a final step, the authors conducted a survey of 880 American adults recruited through the online survey platform Prolific and found that the content in the post-adoption period maintained the same level of persuasiveness as the pre-AI period. According to the authors, immediate action should be taken to mitigate the influence of AI-assisted propaganda campaigns.