AI deepfakes tied to Russia smear Senate candidates with real people's faces

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. One targets Sherrod Brown in Ohio, the other 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.