According to research by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, a Russia-linked influence group is using inauthentic sites and generative AI to influence the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election.

Researchers claim that CopyCop registered 120 new sites between May 10 and 12. The researchers say that CopyCop, first discovered a few weeks ago, registered 120 new websites between May 10 and May 12.

The group scrapes, alters, and distributes articles from U.S. mainstream media and conservative U.K. outlets, as well Russian state-affiliated outlets within 24 hours after the original article is posted. The group’s sources include Breitbart and the Washington Examiner as well as outlets that have been accused of spreading false news, such as The Epoch Times, Zero Hedge and state-owned or aligned Russian media such as Gazeta and TASS.

The US election candidates have been targeted more frequently than ever before, and the former U.S. President Donald Trump has also become the most frequently mentioned person.

Good news: CopyCop’s AI-generated content is not being promoted on social media. Researchers say that this could change.

They write that “Influence networks utilizing generative AI like CopyCop are likely to gain more prominence ahead of the 2024 US election, although they may initially not gain significant attention.”

CopyCop’s content is being amplified by existing influencer networks, which helps it reach existing audiences. Once these websites are persistent, CopyCop is likely to publish more targeted content that is hidden amongst the high volume AI-generated content. This makes it harder to identify.

The content is a denigrating of President Biden and Democratic Policymakers, such as by highlighting the mistakes Biden made in his speeches and referring back to his age. It also criticizes recent negative polls and the failure of the Biden administration to curb inflation.

The report is based on recent research by NewsGuard. In it, was revealed that leading AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot, and Google’s Gemini, can be used to spread Russian misinformation. Much of the content described in the Recorded Future report is the same.

NewsGuard’s team has conducted tests on disinformation narratives created by John Mark Dougan, an American citizen living in Russia.

Recorded Future claims that CopyCop has recently changed its infrastructure from U.S. hosts to try to disguise its connection to the Russian government. AI-generated content makes it more difficult to attribute influence campaigns to foreign adversaries, by speeding up “laundering” and obscuring origin.

The researchers state that “as coordinated inauthentic behaviour networks continue to evolve tactics, targets and methods of attack, persistently identifying these networks and publicly exposing them ahead of the US elections in 2024 should remain a top priority for the public and industry organizations.”

News organizations should monitor content from known influence threats who are likely to plagiarize and weaponize proprietary content and intellectual properties, which increases reputational risk.”