Russia’s artificial intelligence robot farm that has been deployed for two years was discovered and destroyed by the United States

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Tuesday that American law enforcement authorities have seized domain names associated with two Kremlin-backed artificial intelligence social media bot farms. Between June 11, 2022, and March 1, 2024, the bot farms created over 968 Twitter accounts in total.

In court documents released on Tuesday, the Department of Justice stated that the bot farms were part of a Kremlin-approved and funded project overseen by a Russian intelligence officer.

According to the DOJ, the bot farms and their underlying AI software were organized by an anonymous editor from Russian state media RT. （For years, RT has promoted the Russian government’s agenda to international audiences, including those in the United States. However, since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the media outlet has lost some of its influence, prompting the European Union to ban Russian state media and leading tech companies like TikTok, Facebook, and Google to restrict access.）

The bot farms allegedly used domains provided by the Arizona-based domain provider Namecheap (mlrtr.com and otanmail.com) and private email services to generate random email addresses.

They then created Twitter profiles impersonating Americans, posting false information about Russia’s war in Ukraine and other pro-Kremlin statements.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “Today’s action represents the first takedown of a Russia-sponsored generative AI-enhanced social media bot farm.” Wray also stated in a subsequent statement, “Russia intended to use this bot farm to spread AI-generated foreign disinformation, scaling up their operations with the help of AI to undermine our partners in Ukraine and influence geopolitical narratives in favor of the Russian government.”

Among these numerous bot accounts was one user who claimed to live in Minneapolis and posted videos of Russian President Vladimir Putin defending Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and asserting that parts of Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania were "gifts" from the Russian army after World War II.

These accounts now appear to have been removed by Twitter for violating the terms of service. It remains unclear how many people followed these fake accounts or interacted with their posts, as Twitter did not respond to requests for comment.

Russian Bot Farms Sound the Alarm Again

The disruption of the bot farms comes as U.S. officials warn about the potential impact of AI technology on this year’s elections and ongoing concerns that foreign influence activities could sway the opinions of unsuspecting voters.

This situation is reminiscent of the 2016 presidential campaign when Russians launched a vast but covert social media trolling campaign, partly aimed at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The Enormous Influence of AI Technology

Advances in AI technology now allow for the rapid and easy generation of realistic text, images, audio, and video, raising concerns that these tools could be used to produce more propaganda and disinformation on a large scale.

Recently, Facebook owner Meta and ChatGPT creator OpenAI reported that they had identified foreign influence activities, including some linked to Russia, using AI to manipulate the public.