The story behind the cartoon
Social media videos believed to be produced with artificial intelligence and linked to Russia are misusing real people’s names and photographs to spread disinformation about two Democratic Senate candidates in the final stretch of midterm voting, the Associated Press reports — Sherrod Brown in Ohio and James Talarico in Texas.
The Brown video poses as a newscast and uses pictures of Haya Akbik, who interned for Brown years ago; Akbik told the AP the claims attributed to her are completely made up. The Talarico video is framed as a direct-to-camera confessional from a former student, which his campaign denounced as slander by deepfake, foreign bots, and conspiracy theories.
Media forensics experts see hallmarks of Storm-1516, the Russian network that targeted Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in 2024, and Dartmouth professor Hany Farid’s analyses found both videos were likely generated or manipulated with AI. X removed the initial posts and suspended the accounts, but copies with hundreds of shares were still findable days later.
The smear needed a newsroom, a stolen face, and a foreign network — and still couldn’t afford a second take. Merv’s face says what the fact-checkers can’t print.
THE HOMEWORK SHUTTER
EXHIBIT A IS STILL RECORDING
THE SOVEREIGN SLICE
THE MASTER KEY