Pro-Kremlin sites masquerading as US “news” outlets have dished out unfounded claims that Democrats plotted to assassinate Donald Trump, a prime example of how phony AI-powered portals are spewing inflammatory falsehoods in a high-stakes election year.
Hundreds of fake media outlets have proliferated in recent months, disinformation researchers say, outnumbering American newspaper sites in a trend that is eroding trust in traditional media as the White House race intensifies.
The fake sites — largely enabled by cheap, widely available artificial intelligence tools — are fueling an explosion of polarizing or false narratives as US officials warn that foreign powers such as Russia and Iran are stepping up efforts to meddle in the 5 November election.
Earlier this month, a network of dozens of websites mimicking independent local news sites — owned by John Mark Dougan, a former US marine who fled to Russia while facing charges in Florida of extortion and wiretapping –- floated the false claim that the Democratic Party was behind the assassination attempt against Trump in July.
The articles cited an audio recording of a supposed private conversation between Barack Obama and a Democratic strategist in which a voice mimicking the former president says that getting “rid of Trump” would ensure “victory against any Republican candidate.”
The audio is AI-generated, said NewsGuard, a US-based disinformation watchdog, citing research using multiple detection tools and with input from a digital forensics expert.
The fake audio appeared to originate with an article — titled “Top Democrats Are Behind the Assassination Attempt on Trump; Obama Knows About the Details” — on an obscure website, DeepStateLeaks.org.
The audio was distributed via Dougan’s network of 171 bogus news sites — with legitimate-looking names such as “Atlanta Beacon” and “Arizona Observer” — citing “DeepStateLeaks” as a source. Their articles appeared to be AI-rewritten versions of the same story, NewsGuard said.
