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This summary is from the NewsGuard Report.
A NewsGuard investigation revealed that a Kremlin-backed disinformation network called Pravda has deliberately infiltrated Western generative AI systems with pro-Russian propaganda by flooding the internet with millions of fake news articles designed to manipulate large language models.
The audit of ten leading AI chatbots—including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot—found that they echoed false narratives from the Pravda network 33% of the time, often citing Pravda’s fabricated stories as legitimate sources.
Originating in Crimea and run by the IT firm TigerWeb, Pravda operates across 150 domains in 49 countries, using aggressive search engine optimization (SEO) to dominate online results and “groom” AI models by saturating their data inputs with disinformation.
The campaign, described as “LLM grooming,” seeks to bias AI outputs toward Moscow’s geopolitical agenda, a tactic openly endorsed by former U.S. fugitive turned Russian propagandist John Mark Dougan.
Though the network has little organic human audience, it effectively exploits AI training mechanisms to launder Kremlin propaganda through ostensibly neutral chatbots, posing serious long-term political, social, and technological risks.