fullscreen

eFinder

eFinder

Home › Foreign Interference › Article

AI chatbot responses polluted by pro-Russian disinformation

France24 · 🇫🇷 public France · · 1252 words · By The FRANCE; Aurélia ABDELBOST
Foreign Interference AI Vulnerability Information Integrity
headphones Listen to the eFinder podcast briefing
Ready to play
Daily briefing

What to know about Foreign Interference

AI chatbot responses polluted by pro-Russian disinformation AI-driven chatbots are increasingly being used as sources of information, but they are also vulnerable to disinformation campaigns.

Claims checked 13
Techniques found 2
Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left20%
Center60%
Right20%

5 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

AI chatbot responses polluted by pro-Russian disinformation AI-driven chatbots are increasingly being used as sources of information, but they are also vulnerable to disinformation campaigns.

Why it matters

Experts have found that pro-Russian misinformation, in particular, can seep into the responses generated by these conversational agents.

Common ground

Claims have been circulating on pro-Russian websites that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan tried to sell gold from the Amulsar mine to Turkish firms at a discount.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language, Name Calling / Labeling: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.france24.com/en/technology/20260603-ai-chatbot-responses-polluted-pr…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 2 propaganda techniques in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning
Loaded Language 80% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.
Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.
Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.
warning
Name Calling / Labeling 70% confidence
Attaching a negative label to a person or group to reject them without evidence.
Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.
Why it matters: Recognizing name calling / labeling helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 13 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

info Single Source 6
schedule Pending 3
check_circle Corroborated 2
verified Verified By Reference 2
info
Claim 1: “In a 2025 investigation, they [Nordis] tracked 12 Russian-backed narratives concerning the war in Ukraine.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The claim that Nordis tracked 12 Russian-backed narratives in 2025 is explicitly stated in a France 24 report, but not corroborated by other independent sources.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — In a 2025 investigation, they tracked 12 Russian-backed narratives concerning the war in Ukraine. Pipsa Havula, a Finnish journalist and a member of the Nordis network, told our team
https://www.france24.com/en/technology/20260603-ai-chatbot-r…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Former Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout warns in a new interview with Tucker Carlson that the Ukraine war could quickly grow into a direct confrontation between Russia and European countries.
https://nordictimes.com/world/viktor-bout-warns-ukraine-war-…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Ukrainian forces would have had to withdraw from parts of Donetsk they still hold and this would become a demilitarised area under de facto Russian control. Russian forces would withdraw from the smal…
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0l0k4389g2o
check_circle
Claim 2: “NewsGuard focused its investigation particularly on misinformation spread by Pravda, a sprawling network of pro-Russian websites.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm NewsGuard's investigation into the Pravda network of pro-Russian websites.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Jump up to: 1 2 3 4 "U.S. Seizes Websites NewsGuard Rated as Russian Disinformation". ... Jump up to: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "A web of disinformation: Fake news outlets ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_disinformati…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Jun 3, 2026 ... ... disinformation watchdog NewsGuard, which regularly audits ... misinformation spread by Pravda, a sprawling network of pro-Russian websites.
https://www.france24.com/en/technology/20260603-ai-chatbot-r…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Jun 23, 2026 ... Tracking AI-enabled Misinformation: 3,749 AI Content Farm sites ... Russian disinformation operation is now targeting France. Read It ...
https://www.newsguardtech.com/special-reports/ai-tracking-ce…
info
Claim 3: “The disinformation claimed that a Danish student was killed during an attack on an aviation school in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine.”
SINGLE SOURCE
Although the 'Evidence for claim 8' section says no evidence found, the 'Evidence for claim 5' section contains a France 24 report that explicitly mentions a fake story alleging a Danish student was killed in an attack on an aviation school in Kryvyi Rih.
schedule
Claim 4: “John Mark Dougan, a former Florida deputy sheriff who fled to Russia and is now at the heart of an influence campaign dubbed 'Storm 1516'.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info
Claim 5: “The Pravda network consists of 370 sites that published roughly 6 million articles in 2025.”
SINGLE SOURCE
While there is an empirical analysis of the Pravda network (2023-2025), the specific numbers (370 sites, 6 million articles) are not present in the provided evidence snippets.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Mar 3, 2026 ... We show that the network was rolled out in coordinated waves aligned with geopolitical priorities and sanctions regimes. It is highly ...
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/6338581.pdf?abstra…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Internet freedom in Russia continued to plummet during the coverage period, as the government implemented even more restrictive laws to control the information ...
https://freedomhouse.org/country/russia/freedom-net/2023
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Nov 18, 2025 ... The Commission, a legislative branch entity, was created on October 30, 2000 by the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for ...
https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/2025-11/2025_Annual…
info
Claim 6: “This is just one of the findings published in January by the disinformation watchdog NewsGuard”
SINGLE SOURCE
While NewsGuard is a known entity (Wikipedia) and there are reports of AI chatbots repeating disinformation (web search), the specific detail that NewsGuard published these findings in January is only implied by the context of the provided search results and not explicitly corroborated by multiple independent sources.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Gemini (also known as Google Gemini and formerly known as Bard) is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot and virtual assistant developed by Google. It is powered by the family of large language…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Gemini
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — NewsGuard is a rating system for news and information websites. It is accessible via browser extensions and mobile apps. Their team of experts rates the websites' trustworthiness on a scale of 0 to 10…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NewsGuard
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Shield AI MQ-35A V-BAT is a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle developed by Martin UAV, now Shield AI. The V-BAT has been operationally deployed in multiple re…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shield_AI_MQ-35_V-BAT
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
Claim 7: “France’s Viginum agency – which tracks foreign interference online — had identified the Pravda-orchestrated operation as early as February 2024, designating it 'Portal Kombat'.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Both a Wikipedia entry and a government-related search result confirm that France's Viginum agency identified the Pravda network as 'Portal Kombat' in February 2024.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Pravda network, also known as Portal Kombat, is a series of websites created to disseminate news stories with a pro-Russian slant. It was founded by Yevgeny Shevchenko, a Ukrainian national from Crime…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravda_network
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — The FRANCE 24 Observers team tested Copilot in several languages, including English and Slovenian, regarding a pro-Russian disinformation claim. The fake story alleged that a Danish student had been k…
https://www.france24.com/en/technology/20260603-ai-chatbot-r…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — On February 12, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Stéphane Séjourné publicly revealed the discovery of a pro-Russian propaganda network called “Portal Kombat,” which was detected in the course o…
https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy/secu…
verified
Claim 8: “In January 2026, the organisation conducted a new round of testing: 'We tested five false narratives pushed by the Pravda network. In half of the cases, the chatbots repeated these narratives as fact.'”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
The provided evidence for this claim consists of general Wikipedia entries for the month of January and timelines of the Russo-Ukrainian war, but no specific report or data from NewsGuard regarding a January 2026 test with a 50% failure rate.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — This timeline of the Russo-Ukrainian war covers the period from 1 January to 31 May 2025.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Russo-Ukrainia…
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — This timeline of the Russo-Ukrainian war covers the period from 1 January to 31 May 2026.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Russo-Ukrainia…
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The casualties in the Russo-Ukrainian war include six deaths during the 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, 14,200–14,400 military and civilian deaths during the war in Donbas, and be…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Russo-Ukrain…
+ 3 more evidence sources
schedule
Claim 9: “A recent survey by Arcom shows that 20% of French people currently use AI to get their news.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
check_circle
Claim 10: “In March 2025, we found that in 33% of cases, major commercial chatbots – including Mistral's chat and OpenAI's ChatGPT – repeated these narratives as verified facts”
CORROBORATED
A Facebook post from June 8, 2026, corroborates that top generative AI models mimic Russian disinformation claims 'a third of the time' (33%), and another source mentions chatbots being vulnerable to these campaigns.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The ethics of artificial intelligence covers a broad range of topics within AI that are considered to have particular ethical stakes. This includes algorithmic biases, fairness, accountability, transp…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_artificial_intellige…
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of free and open-source software (FOSS) packages, computer software licensed under free software licenses and open-source licenses. Software that fits the Free Software Definition may b…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_and_open-source_s…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Jun 3, 2026 ... AI-driven chatbots are increasingly being used as sources of information, but they are also vulnerable to disinformation campaigns.
https://www.france24.com/en/technology/20260603-ai-chatbot-r…
+ 2 more evidence sources
schedule
Claim 11: “In an investigation for the Finnish media outlet Faktabaari, Havula revealed that Google Lens... has also been compromised by disinformation.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info
Claim 12: “Claims have been circulating on pro-Russian websites that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan tried to sell gold from the Amulsar mine to Turkish firms at a discount.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The claim is explicitly mentioned in one web search result from June 3, 2026, regarding AI chatbot pollution. Other results mention the Amulsar mine but not the specific claim about selling gold to Turkish firms at a discount.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Snap parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on 20 June 2021. The elections had initially been scheduled for 9 December 2023, but were called earlier due to a political crisis following the 2020 …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Armenian_parliamentary_el…
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Parliamentary elections were held in Armenia on 7 June 2026 to elect members of the 9th convocation of the National Assembly. According to exit polls, the incumbent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's pa…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Armenian_parliamentary_el…
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Nikol Vovayi Pashinyan (born 1 June 1975) is an Armenian politician who is serving as the 16th and current prime minister of Armenia since 2018. A journalist by profession, Pashinyan founded his own n…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikol_Pashinyan
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
Claim 13: “When asked in Finnish, Danish, or other less widely spoken languages like Slovenian, the chatbot [Copilot] incorrectly stated that the rumour was true.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The France 24 report mentioned in the evidence for claim 5 explicitly states that the Observers team tested Copilot in several languages, including English and Slovenian, regarding the Danish student claim.
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.