Incident 680: Russia-Linked AI CopyCop Site Identified as Modifying and Producing at Least 19,000 Deceptive Reports

Description: In early March 2024, a network named CopyCop began publishing modified news stories using AI, altering content to spread partisan biases and disinformation. These articles, initially from legitimate sources, were manipulated by AI models, possibly developed by OpenAI, to disseminate Russian propaganda. Over 19,000 articles were published, targeting divisive political issues and creating false narratives.

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Entities

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Alleged: OpenAI and ChatGPT developed an AI system deployed by CopyCop and Russia-linked network, which harmed General public , Journalism and Democracy.

Incident Stats

Incident ID

680

Report Count

Incident Date

2024-03-01

Editors

Daniel Atherton

Applied Taxonomies

MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified

Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

4.1. Disinformation, surveillance, and influence at scale

Risk Domain

Malicious Actors & Misuse

Entity

Human

Timing

Post-deployment

Intent

Intentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Russia-Linked CopyCop Uses LLMs to Weaponize Influence Content at Scale

recordedfuture.com

A Russia-linked network uses AI to rewrite real news stories

economist.com

America Resilient in the Face of Aggressive Foreign Malign Influence Targeting the 2024 U.S. Elections

fdd.org

recordedfuture.com · 2024

In early March 2024, Insikt Group identified a malign influence network, CopyCop, skillfully leveraging inauthentic media outlets in the US, UK, and France. This network is suspected to be operated from Russia and is likely aligned with th…

economist.com · 2024

In the 1980s the kgb had a well-worn method for pumping disinformation around the world. "We preferred to work on genuine documents," recalled Oleg Kalugin, a former kgb general, "with some additions and changes." That method has not change…

fdd.org · 2024

America’s adversaries did not significantly affect the results of the 2024 U.S. elections — but not for lack of trying. Russia, Iran, and China waged aggressive influence operations targeting America’s political system, but America proved r…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.