Morgan Wack

📢 Excited to see our new paper out at @PNASNexus w/@plwarre, @DarrenLinvill, & Carl Ehrett! Using data from a Russia-backed influence operation running puppet website DCWeekly, we show how LLMs are being used to scale global disinfo campaigns: 1/ 🧵 academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/arti…

Check out Spot the Troll 2.0, out today from our team at @ClemsonHub. Our updated quiz tests if you can spot fake social media accounts . . . of if you get trolled. Many thanks for their work on this, but especially @interactiveknow and @knightfdn spotthetroll.org

🔎 Want to know more about how policies can influence the spread of election narratives? My new article interrogating this topic, written alongside an talented team from the CIP, is out now at @PSJ_Editor! Access via the link ⬇️

The Russian propaganda account @its_The_Dr recently posted a fascinating story about "the pedophile church of Ukraine," citing a website called the New Zealand Times. You won't be surprised to hear the website is a fake. It doesn't even have any news from New Zealand! 1/3

A pro-Kremlin influence campaign used AI to boost disinformation output without undermining credibility, according to new research. dlvr.it/TKBz5B

A study of a Russian-backed propaganda outlet finds that AI is already being used to enhance messaging and expand disinformation campaigns, raising concerns about its growing impact on global influence operations. In @Physorg_com: ow.ly/VM6y50VvJEu

A study of a propaganda site with ties to Russia shows that using AI allows propagandists to dial up the volume of their content without sacrificing persuasiveness. The authors call for action to combat the threat. In PNAS Nexus: ow.ly/GfXL50VuISx

Here is the link to the full (open source) paper! 🔗 academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/arti… We welcome feedback & potential collaboration focused on how to counter emerging AI-driven disinformation campaigns!

Finding Three 📝: Even with the shift to AI, the persuasive potential and credibility of the articles persisted. This finding suggests that even in rapid scaling article production the website did not need to sacrifice its perceived authenticity or potential impact. 6/

Finding One 📝: AI use significantly increased the quantity of disinformation. This aligns with the idea that generative models reduce the cost/time of writing, editing, and curating. Once the site adopted LLM tools, weekly post counts soared. 4/

We focus on a site identified by @ClemsonHub that presented itself as a genuine U.S. news outlet but which was actually part of a Russian-affiliated influence operation. By pinpointing a transition away from human-editing to LLM-edited content, we show: 3/

📢 Excited to see our new paper out at @PNASNexus w/@plwarre, @DarrenLinvill, & Carl Ehrett! Using data from a Russia-backed influence operation running puppet website DCWeekly, we show how LLMs are being used to scale global disinfo campaigns: 1/ 🧵 academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/arti…

There have been growing concerns about the use of large language models (LLMs) in the production of disinformation, but real-world evidence has been difficult to track. Our paper provides a direct look at a Russian-linked campaign which used AI tools to target Americans. 2/

Our paper is finally out at @SSQ_Online! See 🧵below for a summary of our findings! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ss…

🚨Breaking News🚨 The opposition has won the Ghanaian elections, and the NPP government has conceded defeat. This makes it a record breaking year for Africa, with five transfers of power, more than ever before in the region's history! More here 👇 bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

⏰Another opening for a PhD position in our (w @MorganWack and @esserfrank_ ) SNF project on political social media influencers! 🥳 If you are into computational methods, social media, and political communcation, we are looking for you 🔎 All details here: tinyurl.com/44arrawh

𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓-𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓 🇧🇼 Dumelang Bagaetsho, I hope you are all well. I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the new President-Elect, Adv. @duma_boko, on his victory.

More interesting papers on politics & AI from @gonzalezrostani @nicolekwu, @StephenChaudoin, @MorganWack, @Dan_Schiff, @kaylynjackson, @TobiasFTober, @daveholtz , Matthias Haslberger, @jasonanastas #AIconference @Caltech @CaltechLCSSP #Day1

How Rwanda floods Twitter with AI-generated messages to create the impression of massive support for Paul Kagame in the run up to the elections. Foreign editors and correspondents take note: none of this is real. Stop falling for the lie in your coverage. theconversation.com/ai-propaganda-…

Protesters how now entered the Kenyan parliament, part of which is on fire. I am hearing that 10 or more people have been shot dead. This should be front page news *everywhere* today. Retweet and share #kenya #KENYAPeoplePower