Description: A Russian disinformation campaign, linked to Storm-1516 and Kremlin propagandist John Mark Dougan, allegedly used AI-generated content to target Kamala Harris’s election bid. The operation included a fake campaign website promoting extreme policies and an AI-enhanced deepfake video falsely claiming Harris killed an endangered rhino in Zambia. The hoaxes were spread via Telegram, X, VK, and pro-Kremlin media outlets.
Editor Notes: See Incident 701 and Incident 968 for more information.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Unknown deepfake technology developer and Unknown voice cloning technology developer developed an AI system deployed by Storm-1516 , John Mark Dougan , Russian state media , Sputnik , RT (Russia Today) and Pravda network, which harmed Kamala Harris , American voters , Electoral integrity and Democracy.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Unknown deepfake app , Unknown voice cloning technology , Social media platforms , NewWayForward.us , Liberty Press and Signal Daily
Incident Stats
Incident ID
972
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2024-09-25
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
A new website claiming to be the official Kamala Harris campaign site, complete with her campaign slogans, colors, and a supposed "advisory board," outlines a policy platform that includes open borders, abolishing voter ID requirements, and…

Russian, Iranian, and Chinese trolls are all ramping up their US election disinformation efforts ahead of November 5, but – aside from undermining faith in the democratic process and confidence in the election result – with very different o…
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.