17/ So here's the question: when a chorus erupts online or at a public hearing, how many independent people are actually speaking? Repetition isn't consent. Volume isn't proof. Ask who organized it, who funded it, and whether the voices are real.

16/ Yandex doesn't prove Russia was using USC-style autonomous swarms. What it does show is that at least some automated propaganda distribution suffered a temporary infrastructure shock. Coordination has machinery behind it.

13/ Then came a strange real-world event. Ukraine struck Russian tech company Yandex's data centers. Reports circulated that Russian propaganda bots had gone silent. Even Zelenskyy commented on the apparent reduction in online hostility.

11/ Older bots might repeat a script. These simulated agents could vary their words while pushing a shared message. To a person scrolling, the apparent agreement could feel organic even when it was engineered.

10/ Now add AI. USC researchers tested networks of language-model agents in a simulation. The agents coordinated messaging, amplified each other and adapted without a human dictating every move. This demonstrated a capability, not a measured real-world takeover.

9/ Notice the progression. In Medicare, near-identical comments created volume. In California, some named residents say they never consented at all. Different methods, same danger: government receives a distorted picture of public participation.

6/ Then California. In a fight over gas water heaters, 10 residents told reporters they hadn't authorized opposition letters bearing their names. An AI-using vendor paid by the Bay Area Council sent at least 85 letters.

4/ The group wanted higher payments for private Medicare insurers. Its funding wasn't disclosed. Identical letters don't mean every sender was fake. They do show how one script can look like thousands of independent demands.

2/ Think about how you decide what people believe. A thousand comments. A flood of angry posts. The same argument everywhere. We read volume as consensus. But what if the crowd is organized, duplicated or partly invented?

Ukraine strikes on Russian data centers disrupt online services

Dogs have more sense than MAGA 😏