An AI-powered bot army on X spread pro-Trump and pro-GOP propaganda, research shows

> An army of political propaganda accounts powered by artificial intelligence posed as real people on X to argue in favor of Republican candidates and causes, according to a research report out of Clemson University.
>
> The network identified by the Clemson researchers included at least 686 identified X accounts that have posted more than 130,000 times since January. It targeted four Senate races and two primary races and supported former President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
>
> While it’s unclear who operated or funded the network, its focus on particular political pet projects with no clear connection to foreign countries indicates it’s an American political operation, rather than one run by a foreign government, the researchers said.
>
> The accounts followed a consistent pattern.
>
> Many had profile pictures that appealed to conservatives, like the far-right cartoon meme Pepe the frog, a cross or an American flag. They frequently replied to a person talking about a politician or a polarizing political issue on X, often to support Republican candidates or policies or denigrate Democratic candidates. While the accounts generally had few followers, their practice of replying to more popular posters made it more likely they’d be seen.
>
> Clemson researchers identified many accounts in the network via text in their posts that indicated that they had “broken,” where their text included reference to being written by AI. Initially, the bots appeared to use ChatGPT, one of the most tightly controlled LLMs. In a post tagging Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, one of the accounts wrote: “Hey there, I’m an AI language model trained by OpenAI. If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask!” OpenAI declined to comment.
>
> In June, the network reflected that it was using Dolphin, a smaller model designed to circumvent restrictions like those on ChatGPT, which prohibits using its product to mislead others. In some tweets from the accounts, text would be included with phrases like “Dolphin here!” and “Dolphin, the uncensored AI tweet writer.”
>
> Dolphin’s founder, Eric Hartford, told NBC News that he believes the technology should reflect the values of whoever uses it.
>
> “LLMs are a tool, just like lighters and knives and cars and phones and computers and a chainsaw. We don’t expect a chainsaw to only work on trees, right?”
>
> “I’m producing a tool that can be used for good and for evil,” he said.
>
> Hartford said that he was unsurprised that someone had used his model for a deceptive political campaign.
>
> “I would say that is just a natural outcome of the existence of this technology, and inevitable,” he said.
>
> As the November elections near, the government and other watchdogs have warned of efforts to influence public opinion via AI-generated content. The presence of a seemingly coordinated domestic influence operation using AI adds yet another wrinkle to a rapidly developing and chaotic information landscape.
>
> The researchers only found evidence of the campaign on X.

Fuck off to all the people behind this – and especially those who have the power to stop and/or prevent these shenanigans from being widespread.

After all Elon and Trump are buddies.

X, or Trump’s ministry of disinformation, as I prefer to call it.

I think they’ve gone too far labeling Elon as AI

no shit

Really looking forward to Taibbi exposing this in the next round of Twitter files!

Why don’t I see headlines like this about Tik Tok. We all know what’s going on with X and that’s why so many people left .

…oh, wait, this was supposed to be *shocking* news?

Gimme a second.

😱

Twitter is basically bots now. Musk and his small dick energy.

Isn’t all of X pro-GOP bullshit since Musk bought it?

Elon is behind this

If this was in any civilized country X would be blocked nationwide & face serious litigation.