Earlier this week the Justice Department said that for the first time it had

disrupted a Russian propaganda campaign that used artificial intelligence in

efforts to inflame election year divisions in US society.

Also this week, the director of national intelligence,

Avril Haynes, issued the first of what she said

would be regular updates about disinformation threats.

She warned that Iran was using social media to encourage

pro-Palestinian protests. Nina Jankewitz is co-founder and CEO of the American Sunlight Project

which studies the threat of online

disinformation.

Nita AI, this new tool that everyone's being using now but now the Russians are

using this. How significant is this? Well I think it's a logical next step, right?

Russia's been engaged in these sorts of influence activities for decades.

They were ahead of the curve with online disinformation back in 2016. And if a tool comes along to make it easier

for them to influence the American public they're certainly going to use it and

that's exactly what they did here allowing AI to create images for social media accounts, and even

populate them with content that audiences in the United States might be

vulnerable to.

Makes it easier for them. Does it make it harder to deal with or combat?

Well I think in this case you know the Justice Department along with foreign allies

was able to identify this campaign that's a good sign but I think what makes it more difficult for American audiences is that again these

messages are going to be specifically tailored not only to look like real social media

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