00:00How are fake videos of frontline Ukrainian soldiers fooling online users?
00:09Videos of Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline have become a staple of modern-day warfare,
00:15more than four years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
00:18Here you can see a Ukrainian soldier filming trenches lined with bodies of deceased and injured soldiers.
00:24These videos shared on social media catalog the chilling reality of many Ukrainians battling off Russian troops from the frontline.
00:31This kind of footage has become an essential tool in wartime messaging, but in this case you may have been
00:36fooled.
00:37This video, like many others, is in fact synthetic.
00:40It forms part of a whole series of videos of fake Ukrainian soldiers that were uncovered and analysed by experts
00:47at Sensity, a forensic AI detection company.
00:50These kinds of videos are typically initially shared on platforms such as TikTok and Telegram, on accounts that are later
00:56removed.
00:57Once a video is posted and gains traction through likes, views and comments,
01:01it's then shared on adjacent platforms such as X, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube.
01:05The content is then picked up by established Russian influence networks, including military bloggers or Russian state-owned propaganda sites.
01:14Sensity researchers also found recurring patterns in the rhetoric pushed by AI soldiers,
01:19notably in an effort to demoralize real troops.
01:22For example, they often spread claims of corruption in the Ukrainian army and encourage surrender.
01:28Some videos, such as this one in which a serviceman claims he no longer wants to serve in the Ukrainian
01:33army due to poor leadership,
01:35aim to damage trust in Ukraine's army command.
01:38They also try to shift the blame from Russia to Ukrainian leadership and make Ukraine's defeat seem inevitable by showing
01:44exhausted units willing to surrender.
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