AI-generated influencers flood social media with pro-Trump content ahead of midterms

A wave of fake AI-powered accounts is pushing political content across social media, raising fresh questions about the role of synthetic media in US elections.

Hundreds of fake pro-Trump accounts have popped up on social networks ahead of the US midterm elections, with AI-generated influencers bashing the "radical left" and pushing "America First" messaging, the New York Times reports.

The paper tracked down at least 304 such accounts on TikTok alone since January. Purdue's GRAIL research lab found a dozen more across TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, while Eric Nelson, an analyst at security firm Alethea, spotted nine on YouTube. Examples include the TikTok account @perezfernandaus (first video) and the now-deleted Instagram account "jessicaa.foster" (see second video below).

Some accounts have pulled in more than 35,000 followers, with individual posts racking up over half a million views. Donald Trump himself shared content from a blonde avatar making unsubstantiated claims about California's governor. Who's behind the accounts isn't clear. Zuhair Lakhani, co-founder of AI advertising startup Doublespeed, told the NYT that each post probably costs just $1 to $3 to produce, and a single person could easily handle the workload.

TikTok calls the accounts spam and says it plans to take them down, arguing there's "zero indication of covert influence operations," just spammers chasing engagement. But the NYT points to clusters of accounts using identical language, profile pictures, and sound effects. The same characters pop up across multiple accounts, like a blonde woman with pigtails on a farm or a Black woman in a red MAGA cap and aviator goggles. Some accounts even follow each other. No comparable left-wing networks turned up.

The trend isn't limited to the US. Fake AI videos and messages also spread across social media in Japan around the recent lower house election. A survey by Professor Shinichi Yamaguchi of the International University of Japan found that 51.5 percent of respondents believed such fake news to be true.