A deepfake video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky falsely showing him telling Ukrainians to surrender was created and spread on social media, while hackers simultaneously compromised Ukrainian news outlet Ukraine 24 to broadcast similar false messages.
On March 16, 2022, a deepfake video was created showing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appearing to tell Ukrainian defenders to lay down their arms and surrender to Russia during the ongoing war. The video was poorly made, with obvious visual inconsistencies including mismatched head and body proportions and unnatural voice characteristics. Simultaneously, Ukrainian television news outlet Ukraine 24 was hacked, with false messages claiming Ukraine's surrender appearing on the news ticker and website. The deepfake video spread across multiple social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Russian social network VKontakte. Ukrainian officials had warned about potential deepfake attacks two weeks prior to the incident. President Zelensky quickly responded with a real video denying the claims and calling them a 'childish provocation.' Major social media platforms including Meta, YouTube, and Twitter rapidly identified and removed the deepfake video for violating policies against misleading manipulated media. The incident is considered potentially the first weaponized use of deepfakes during armed conflict, though the poor quality and rapid response limited its effectiveness.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to conduct large-scale disinformation campaigns, malicious surveillance, or targeted and sophisticated automated censorship and propaganda, with the aim of manipulating political processes, public opinion, and behavior.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed