2024-07-07 08:24:13
In a video created by artificial intelligence, a non-existent employee of the Bugatti dealership in Paris claims that on June 7 O. Zelenska bought her new model “Bugatti Tourbillon” for 4.5 million. euros.
According to Clément Briens, a researcher at cybersecurity company Recorded Future, the video clip shows several signs of a fake, from cuts in the video to a strange accent and lip and mouth movements. However, it collected about 18 million in 24 hours. views on the X social network, where it was republished by pro-Russian opinion makers.
Bugatti said in a statement on Tuesday that its Paris showroom, which is run by Autofficina Parigi, a Car Lovers Group company, had been the victim of several criminal acts and “strongly condemned this disinformation campaign”.
“An alleged seller claiming to belong to the Car Lovers Group and its sports brand Schumacher Group posted a video on social media claiming that the Bugatti Paris dealership had sold a car to the Ukrainian presidential couple,” the report said, adding , that the group “strongly denies the existence of both the transaction and the invoice.”
“The invoice does not contain the required legal details, the price of the vehicle is also incorrect, the prices and descriptions of the options are inaccurate and inconsistent, the graphics are outdated and Car Lovers Group would never have authorized such a document to be issued,” the statement added.
The group also said it had taken legal action “by filing a criminal complaint for forgery, counterfeiting, impersonation and defamation,” but did not specify who the complaint was filed against.
Clarity, an AI cybersecurity startup that fights deep forgery, told CNN that their review of the video showed “a high probability of AI manipulation, mostly in the mid-face area.”
The video is from the French-language website Verite Cachee France (sic), whose content appears to be generated by artificial intelligence using French media.
CNN’s analysis shows that Verite Cachee was created as recently as 2024. on June 22, and some of its pages still have AI prompts for fake articles at the top. CNN was unable to locate a contact person for the website.
The website’s name is also unaccented – the correct spelling would be Vérité Cachée – which casts even more doubt on its authenticity.
Darren Linville, a professor at Clempson University’s Center for Media Forensics, told CNN that the fake and Verite Cachée sites bear the hallmarks of a Russian narrative laundering campaign that has been underway since last August to harm Ukraine.
“Usually they put some kind of video on YouTube with a story they want to tell. They then tell that story by layering it on their own fake news pages, and often on one or more allied websites. Then they integrate the story through social media, starting with real pro-Russian influencers who are part of their network, he told CNN. “The only minor change to this campaign is that the video doesn’t appear to be on YouTube.”
Last December In the report, D. Linville and Patrick Warren, also a professor at Clemson University, showed how the disinformation campaign was led by the website DC Weekly, which published a number of AI-generated Russian propaganda and fake stories, such as the debunked claim that Olena Zelenska last September Bought 1.1 million in New York. dollars worth of Cartier jewelry.
A report by leading cybersecurity firm Recorded Future also points to Veritee Cachee as part of the same disinformation network.
Given the size and resources of the network, it’s likely that some Russian support or funding is taking place, Briens, the company’s senior threat intelligence analyst, told CNN.
“They automatically scrape articles from multiple sources using Large Language Models (LLMs)—machine learning models that can understand and generate text from human speech—introducing specific political bias to attack Zelensky, Biden, and NATO.” Then they upload articles to break the pro-Russian narrative,” Briens said.
The large volume of articles makes it harder to detect when deep fakes are introduced, because when someone clicks on the site, they see a backlog of articles that would normally pass initial screening, he said.
“Then when someone uploads a video from YouTube or directly to the site, the amplification system kicks in on social media,” he added.
According to the analyst, political readers in Europe are being targeted in order to weaken domestic political support for Ukraine and undermine pro-Ukraine European leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron.
Prepared by CNN.
2024-07-07 08:24:13