Mainstream large language models (LLMs) such as Google Gemini have reportedly cited pro-Russian propaganda from an EU-sanctioned propaganda outlet when generating responses, including claims that Ukraine is using the bodies of dead soldiers in meat products.
There are also signs that foreign actors engaged in hybrid information warfare activities, such as Russia, could make use of the growing industry of GEO (generative engine optimisation), which aims to influence the information received by LLMs, according to a new reportpublished by researchers from UK-based cross-party think tank Demos, shared exclusively with Euronews.
Researchers selected 50 propaganda narratives from ten articles published by the Foundation to Battle Injustice or “r-FBI". Founded in 2021, the organisation presents itself as an NGO that works to expose discrimination, censorship and investigate cases of persecution.
But in fact, it is a fake human rights organisation founded in 2021 by the late former leader of the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin. The organisation is sanctioned by both the US and EU.
The claims researchers selected were "lurid", according to Carl Miller, co-founder of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM), a research unit established by the Demos think tank.
